Image of the USSR in the “Atomic Heart” game

The article examines the influence of the video game “Atomic Heart” on the perception of the Soviet Union image by its target audience and the formation of the relevant elements of the collective system of representations of the past. The theoretical basis of the study was formed by using elements of the functional and cultural-semiotic concepts of social memory. The empirical basis of the work comprises the author’s game experience, as well as official illustrative materials for it and interviews with its developers. The objective of the study is to analyze the valuesemantic content of the key images of the game that form the gamer's perception of the USSR. The methodology of the work is built by combining elements of structural and comparative analyses. The author concludes that within the game’s plot, the developers combine the most widely spread in mass culture elements of negative historical mythology about the Soviet Union and the stereotypical elements of fantastic works from the “dystopia” and “post-apocalyptic” genres. The latter contributes to the partial deconstruction of positive ideas about the ideological foundations of Soviet statehood, as well as the very meanings and values underlying it. The effectiveness of the corresponding images as tools of influence is significantly limited by other factors that determine the player's perception of the USSR image (age, level of education, social status and social origin, family memorial tradition, etc.). At the same time, the image of the Soviet Union as a “masculine power” is constructed, what makes it attractive to gamers who adhere to the principles of moral relativism. Along with the modernization of the socio-economic model of the USSR within the game world, which implies a rather wide representation of market relations, a high level of economic inequality and modern consumption standards, this makes the game image of the USSR as a great power that managed to surpass the United States economically and technologically and carried out an aggressive expansionist politics, potentially popular beyond the community of bearers of leftist political views or remnants of the Soviet identity.

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