«A Portrait of a Contemporary Person»: Documentary Films of the 1960s–1980s, Dedicated to Ukrainian Writers

The purpose of the study is to examine the peculiarities of representing the images of Ukrainian writers of Soviet period in documentary portraits dedicated to their contemporaries; to find out the role of these cinematic images in the process of constructing Soviet identity and forming a «new person», a «builder of communism». Research methodology. The research is based on theoretical developments and concepts of foreign and Ukrainian scholars in the fields of source studies, film studies, cultural history, identity construction studies, and studies of the Soviet past. The work was conducted using general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. In covering the topic, the author also applied the methods of source criticism, chronological, systematic, typological analysis, and case method. Scientific novelty. The representation of the images of Ukrainian contemporary writers in Soviet documentaries as one of the tools for forming the identity of Ukrainians of the Ukrainian SSR has not yet been the subject of scientific research. Conclusions. Film documents are important testimonies to the time of their creation and provide significant material for understanding it, as well as a valuable source for studying images and ideas that emerge in the public consciousness. Ukrainian documentary filmmaking of the 1960s and 1980s, like the cinema of that time in general, was under severe ideological and censorship pressure. The Soviet totalitarian system viewed cinema primarily as a powerful means of propaganda and a tool for educating the «Soviet person». The cinematic images of contemporary Ukrainian writers of Soviet period represented in portrait films, despite the authorities' attempts to use them to construct a universal Soviet identity, were predominantly binary in nature, contributing to the penetration and establishment of Soviet values, and, having a national connotation, resisting the complete dissolution of national identity.