Zavtra byla vojna

This film reflects the social atmosphere and discussions about the past during the period of Gorbachev's perestroika in the second half of the 1980s, which was essentially a period of reformist communism. Tomorrow Was the War tries to come to terms with the era of the notorious Stalinist purges and show trials of the 1930s when a coerced confession was enough for the conviction of the accused and the discrediting of his entire family. The artistic form is refined, and the overwhelming majority of Russian films produced today can only look on from afar. However, in terms of content, it is simply a product of its time. The Stalinists and opportunists are portrayed in an exaggerated manner that borders on caricature, and there is a lot of pathos and ideology that simply had no place in real life. I have no problem with the fact that the film is influenced by some ideology because, after all, the film tries to revive old humanistic ideals. But I simply do not believe many of the dialogues, gestures, and decisions of the characters. This part of the film falls behind in execution. Overall impression: 65%. (26/01/2011)

Aware viewers immediately see in the human struggle of moral principles and cruel utilitarian conventions a typical example of the "schizophrenia of communist totality" or something similar, as if it only existed in barbaric communist Russia (and the Third Reich, pushed into the same, no less ideological, category of "totalitarianism" as the USSR for current ideological reasons). When we dream the dream that we could only have been truly evil in some sort of past life and somewhere else, we no longer have to fear that we could really be evil today - liberal democracy and the free market inherently exclude that! Fortunately, the Russians knew and know from experience that all social systems are bad, and that is why they can make such good films. The motive of perestroika here lies in the fact that the virtues and principles of good communists and citizens of the USSR (whether we think they are good or not, or real or not, as presented in the film) were betrayed by Stalinism and its carriers, but not defeated. This was largely achieved, although of course not completely, through the deadly war, which, along with late post-war Stalinism, helped suppress the older honorable principles of the revolution. Perestroika thus aligns itself with these ideals, personified in the film by the Komsomol youth, the youth of the party, and the whole USSR, which was torn apart by Stalinism and then Brezhnevism before perestroika came. In politics, this found reflection in Gorbachev's return to Lenin. (23/10/2014)