Representations of Russian and Soviet colonialism in the Arctic in Contemporary Cinema

The Arctic has constituted a core focus of Russia’s economic and geopolitical strategies from the Imperial era to the present day. In the 1930s, “conquest” of the Arctic was fundamental to the Soviet regime’s nation-branding and propaganda. In recent years, Russia has been militarising its Arctic in preparation for war with Western powers and exploiting the melting permafrost and ice to extract oil and natural gas. These pursuits have devastating consequences for the Arctic’s environment and Indigenous populations. In parallel with this, cinema has played a key role in both challenging and endorsing Russia’s (neo-)colonial claims on the Arctic. A number of films from the Sakha Republic have critiqued Russia’s historical exploits in the region. Conversely, recent state-sponsored historical dramas reproduce the colonial narrative of the Arctic as a space of abundance and awe to be exploited and subjugated by Russia/the USSR. Discussing films of both tendencies, this paper demonstrates how the Russian Arctic imagined on screen has become an important site for contesting discourses of Russian nationhood, in an era in which a neo-colonial vision of Russian masculine “might” has become especially vociferous since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and relations with the West have dramatically worsened. 

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