Фильм "Никто не хотел умирать" (1965): опыт контекстуальной критики

ENThe article analyzes the historical period preceding the creation of momentous film “Nobody Wanted to Die” (1965). It was the first film in the USSR that addressed the question of the civil war in Lithuania after the end of the World War II. The anti Soviet resistance had a lot of supporters in Lithuanian society. As a result, the Soviet authorities repressed in 1944–1952 up to 10% of the total population of Lithuania. The events of 1956th in Hungary and Poland gave a new impetus to the aggravation of the situation in Lithuania. Frightened by the consequences of the events of 1956th, the Soviet leadership decided to curtail the “Thaw” policy. That is why the film by Vytautas Zhalakevičius, made at the Lithuanian Film Studio in 1965th, according to contemporary film critics, “could not have been made either five years earlier or five years later”. Even in the Soviet film reviews, there was some respect for those who fought against the Soviet regime, despite the fact that these people were officially considered bandits. And the film about the civil war in Lithuania itself became a part of this ongoing battle against nationalism in the USSR, which gradually spilled over from the stage of armed confrontation to the fight of ideologies. The article is the attempt to carry out contextual criticism of film, that implies identification the semantic structures of film in their relationship with the semantic structures of the culture that generated this film. Key words: historical cinema, civil war, anti Soviet resistance, Lithuanian cinema, nationalism, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956th, the “Thaw”, historical memory, repressions in the USSR, ideological fight, film criticism, feature film, realism. [From the publication]