Films are viewed as an instrument of historical policy and a means of interpreting and distributing certain views about various episodes in national history. The study sample consisted of the eight highest box-office non-military Russian films about Soviet society, which were released between 2008 and 2017. Based on the method of organizing the plot and the themes raised, the films were divided into two groups: “films about achievements” and “films about personal life.” The key methods were the following: 1. content analysis of screen time allocated to certain scenes and characters, to discussions of various topics; 2. discourse analysis of the speech of film characters. On the basis of analysis, three types of characters were described: “hero” (main positive character), “opponent” (main antagonist) and “helper.” The results of the analysis depict the main tendencies in the interpretations of the events of the Soviet era by contemporary Russian cinema. One of the key themes in all the films is the confrontati