Czy w ZSRR kręcono thrillery?

This article is an attempt to answer the question whether, in the specific conditions in which thecinematography of the Soviet Union was created and developed, we can talk about the productionof thrillers. The notion of the thriller is considered and attention is paid to the problem of the definitionof the term itself and the fact that some researchers do not treat the thriller as a genre at all.The thriller, associated by the Soviet decision-makers with Western culture (and thus also American),was perceived as a bourgeois creation, which made it an undesirable genre in the Soviet Union.Nevertheless, for many years immediately after the end of World War II and at the very end of theexistence of the historical empire, a series of films were created and they could be called thrillers inthe general modern sense of the word. Titles of Soviet films created in the years 1947–1991 havebeen chosen from the rich resources of cinematography of our eastern neighbours. At the cinemahistorian’s workshop, there were both images of well-known and popular Soviet directors(Boris Barnet, Stanisław Goworouchin, Eldar Riazanow), as well as slightly less known personalities,(Gieorgij Nikulin, Boris Durow).