Make Love, Not War
Russian spy comedies, 1990s–2010s
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The spy comedy is a rather new and rare genre, which began developing in Russia only in the 1990s. It reflects the spirit of political opening, the end of the Cold War, but also deeper continuities. In these films, confrontation between the blocs, especially between the United States and the Soviet Union or Russia, dissolves into friendship or friendly rivalry. Often a love story is in the foreground. At the same time, constants such as the image of Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet intelligence service, show that the authorities of the past have not been buried. The films’ different approaches to these constants reveal the social and political climate of their times.
(Osteuropa 11/2022, pp. 183–204)