• Director(s):

    ZAMYSLOVA (Liza), VASAK (Vladimir), TOULY (Florence)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE G.E.I.E

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2021

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

In Moscow, on August 19, 1991, the putsch led by a group of conservative generals precipitated the dislocation of the USSR.

The experience of Perestroika, the economic restructuring and Glasnost – the political transparency policy led by Mikhail Gorbachev – ended in chaos and led Boris Yeltsin to power, tolling the death knell for the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991.  Thirty years later, Vladimir Putin's Russia, far from celebrating this date, prefers to pay tribute to the Victory of 1945; which has become the national holiday for Russians in recent years. The current government is trying to fortify its power by reconstituting an empire through the assertion of its strength and military power, whether in Ukraine or in Georgia. A rhetoric that relies on the Army – which Vladimir Putin highly values – as well as on the concept of a threatened Homeland to be defended at all costs.  From the USSR, the current power chose to remember only its former glory, so the memory of gulags and political repression has faded from Russian minds. The forced labor camps have been erased, and it is now Stalin who is celebrated for his role in the Victory of May 9, 1945. Today, the Russian government has chosen to forget 1991 and the end of the USSR, in order to better idealize it... Follow us on a deep dive into the contorted Russian memory.