Political, social and cultural changes brought about by the reforms undertaken in the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, have been an object of extensive studies. However, the period's cinema - a key provider of ideological support to the reformist project - has received less systematic attention. This book regards the films produced in the early post-Stalin period as articulation of the Russian cultural tradition associated with the values of the intelligentsia, a champion of the reforms. Representations of the intelligentsia's worldview are examined in the framework of the concord between this socio-cultural group and its political superiors and as images conditioned by its traditional view of itself as the cultural and moral leader. The first part of the book focuses on the relationship of stylistic changes produced by the loosening of the Soviet aesthetic doctrine to the intelligentsia's mentality. The second part reviews representations of the intelligentsia's vision of history, particularly in films about the Second World War.

The book is aimed at scholars and students in the fields of cinema studies, Russian and Soviet history and culture, and intellectual history.