Russian lawmaker Sangadzhi Tarbaev has called on educators to use cinema trips and social media teasers rather than compulsory lessons to teach Soviet film classics.
Tarbaev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Culture from the New People party, told the TASS news agency that gentle methods were far more effective than forcing pupils into classrooms.
He argued that compelling teenagers to watch older films creates resistance. Coercion as an educational method consistently produces the opposite result among young people, who have pushed back against forced instruction throughout history, he said.
During the Soviet period, schools regularly organised collective class visits to movie theatres to see recommended titles. Tarbaev pointed out that modern youths still view cinemas as popular leisure spaces, making special screenings at local theatres a natural fit for film education.
Social media clips and cultural context
The lawmaker stressed that the presentation channel is just as important as the screening itself. Because teenagers primarily discover information through online networks, he recommended promoting both retro screenings and new cinema releases with promotional trailers and short highlight reels of key scenes on social media.
Tarbaev also noted that younger audiences struggle with cultural references that older generations take for granted. Everyday realities that were immediately clear to citizens born during the Soviet era now require careful explanation for today's schoolchildren, he explained.
The State Duma is the lower house of Russia's parliament. Soviet cinema produced hundreds of celebrated films during the twentieth century, but much of the everyday life portrayed on screen reflects a society that vanished after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Interest in Soviet heritage remains strong across Russia, and Tarbaev concluded that preserving that interest requires a systematic approach. His proposal follows a recent move by the Russian Ministry of Education, which compiled a golden collection of family films divided by age group, featuring both classic Soviet masterpieces and contemporary Russian releases.
