Representation of the image of "Russia" and "Russians" in video games as an integral part of the soft power policy of Western countries

Il'ichev Aleksei Vladimirovich Postgraduate student; Department of Political Sciences and Philosophy; Sevastopol State University Researcher; FGBUK Museum-Reserve of the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol 33 Universitetskaya St., Sevastopol, 299053, Russia alexeiilyichev@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction. For many years, World War II remained the last major armed conflict in Europe. The Soviet-American confrontation during the Cold War took the form of a hybrid nature, limited to various involvement in regional conflicts, as well as trade and economic confrontation. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the unipolar Pax Americana, the policy of weakening Russia shifted towards "soft power". The Crimean spring of 2014 and the beginning of the Special Military Operation in February 2022 marked the beginning of a new stage of the conflict – a transition from hybridity to a complex confrontation covering all spheres (cultural, military, economic, etc.) and regions. In parallel with the direct involvement of the West in the conflict in Ukraine, which is manifested in the supply of weapons, specialists, intelligence data, etc. The Western world is making a special bet on destabilizing the situation inside Russia by inciting protest sentiments and ethnic hatred, exerting pressure on friendly states. Based on the current realities, it is possible to come to the wrong conclusions that in the current situation of the most severe pressure on the domestic state, which they want to turn into an "outcast country" by installing an "economic and information dome" over it, the policy of "soft power" has lost its relevance. However, today, on the contrary, it is necessary to begin a comprehensive and fundamental study of the effects of the policy of "soft power" on the domestic population, both from the West and from the East. Special emphasis should be placed on the younger generation, as it is the most vulnerable category of the population, and is also used as a kind of driver for destabilizing the socio-political situation within countries.

The beginning of a Special military operation and partial mobilization demonstrated the cultural and moral primacy of Western ideology among a significant stratum of the younger generation. Exposed to the influence of public opinion leaders (bloggers and influencers), a part of the military-age population left the territory of Russia. The exact number is an extremely controversial issue today. Western and pro-Western media indicate from 400 to 700 thousand who left ^[1], while domestic resources reported no more than 100 thousand ^[2]. At the same time, what happened is the result of the active cultural, ideological and information policy of the West in the Russian state. The harsh measures taken within the framework of the policy of censoring destructive content and promoting spiritual and moral values have allowed us to begin to reverse this negative trend. It is worth noting that the policy of promoting spiritual and moral values should be implemented not only within the country to maintain the security of the nation and the state, but also outside the country within the framework of the policy of "soft power". In modern conditions, the video game industry is a promising direction, according to the author. Today, it is a multibillion-dollar market and a powerful tool of influence through the construction of sustainable images, allowing you to effectively promote your own value system. The subject of the study is the works of the video game industry, which include Russia, in the role of the main or auxiliary antagonist of history. The object of the research is political and ideological narratives in the representation of the image of "Russia" and "Russians" in the products of the Western video game industry. The purpose of the study is to study the video game industry as an example of an effective tool in the framework of the "soft power" policy of Western countries. The objectives of the study are as follows:

• To define the term "soft power" and consider examples of its successful implementation in the field of mass culture;
• Evaluate the current state of the video game industry;
• To analyze the products of the video game industry and identify the main archetypes representing the image of Russia;
• To study the main narratives in the reflection of the events of the Second World War and the Eastern Front in video games;
• To identify the necessary set of measures for the further effective development of the domestic video game industry market.

The research methodology is subordinated to the general goals and objectives of the research. To study the narratives and images embedded in the representative image of "Russia" and "Russians" in the video game industry, qualitative content analysis was applied, which allowed us to identify the main characteristics and archetypes. Quantitative content analysis was applied to consider the representation of the Eastern Front in projects dedicated to the Second World War.

The main text.

The concept of "soft power" It was developed by the American researcher J. He came at the end of the Cold War to rethink American policy on the foreign arena, after the collapse of his main ideological opponent. In the Bound to Lead study, he first formulated it as "the ability to force another person or organization to achieve the results you want through cooperation, rather than coercion" ^[3]. "Soft power" later received a deeper disclosure in the author's next work, "The Future of Power," where he demonstrated the various possibilities of its application. However, at its core, the understanding of "soft power" continued to remain unchanged from what was presented in Bound to lead. Subsequently, based on these ideas and their further methodological and theoretical development, the concept of "smart power" will be presented – a successful synthesis of the resources of "soft and hard forces" within the framework of one effective strategy" ^[4].

Thus, "soft power" is a special direction of the state's foreign policy, associated with the spread of its influence on another state through various information channels, cultural tools, educational and humanitarian programs. At the preparatory stage, the main task is to form a set of attractive humanitarian and ideological images, ideals, and stereotypes that will be broadcast and circulated internationally through their original value system. The emergence of new media for the dissemination of information and entertainment content (television, the Internet) has provided truly unique, unlimited opportunities to influence the foreign population. They had the strongest effect on the post-Soviet space. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the population, which was in a cultural and ideological crisis in the last years of the Soviet Union, found itself involved in a rapid flow of content supplied from abroad, of varying degrees of quality and dignity. Through cinema, literature, television programs, and shows, the United States actively promoted the American way of life, thinking, and value system throughout the post-Soviet space. This whole process had an indirect impact on the processes of the "color revolutions" in the 2000s. This is indicated by the fact that the main driving force behind the protests was the younger generation, who were influenced not only by social media, but also by popular culture products. However, the United States is not the only country that has conducted its cultural expansion through "soft power." Within the framework of the topic under consideration, successful experiences from the Asian region, Japan, should be cited. Since the 1960s. Japan is becoming one of the world's leading exporters of electronic products.

The development of its own industry was accompanied by an active process of cultural revival of the country. As a result, new genres or subgenres (depending on the classifications) of popular culture have emerged – manga and anime. From a local, regional phenomenon, since the 1980s, Japanese animation and comic book products have been actively promoted on the international market. Today, the Japanese government has significantly popularized its culture and improved the image of its country through cinema, manga, anime, music and video games. Researchers K. Hayashi and U. Anderson in his work "Anime, Philosophy and Religion" noted that the transformation of anime into a worldwide phenomenon can be due to the exoticism of the animation style, a unique set of stories, characters, philosophical problems raised in the narratives of these works ^{[5, pp. XVIII-XXI]}.

The widespread success of Japan on the basis of cultural expansion is also evidenced by the fact that today major Western media giants are engaged in the production of their own animated projects in the anime genre. Japanese culture has also had a serious impact on the younger generation in Russia. Since the 1990s, a number of domestic TV channels have started broadcasting anime. The initial reaction was mixed. Anime, like any movie/TV series, has its own age rating. However, the majority of Russians, considering that the genre belongs to animation, perceived anime as products intended for a children's audience, which influenced the formation of an incorrect idea about these works among a part of the population of our country.

However, the distinctive visual features of the genre's style, which contrasted with the products of the Western market, combined with a different approach to setting and presenting the plot, led to the emergence of a wide fan base of the genre in Russia.

In the 1990s, the first anime fan clubs appeared (R.An .Ma in 1996^[6]) and pirate voice acting and translation studios. In 2000, Voronezh hosted the first anime festival in the country [7. pp.46-52]. In the early 2000s, a number of major domestic TV channels (CTC, TNT and 2x2) began broadcasting a number of anime projects.

Gradually, anime and manga transformed from a local subculture into one of the components of popular culture in the domestic market, becoming an everyday phenomenon. In particular, this may be evidenced by the following: the opening of specialized educational courses on the genre ("Anime and manga in the modern media system" at the MGIMO Department of International Journalism), the holding of specialized festivals of Oriental culture ("Felix"), the organization of anime shows with the support of domestic public institutions (in 2023, the anime show "Yokai Matsuri" received support from the Movement of the First). Even as part of the Unified State Exam in Russian, students were allowed to refer to anime and video games ^[8].

Manga translation began to be handled not only by amateur groups, but also by major publishers in Russia, such as like "AST", "Eksmo" and "ABC". Although anime translation is still being handled by enthusiastic teams. The cultural influence is also evidenced by the rapid growth of interest among young people in learning the Japanese language ^[9], a tourist visit to the country, or even moving. Such processes were largely shaped by the visually embellished image of the country created within the framework of Japanese animation.

It is impossible to consider all aspects and issues related to Japan's "soft power" in one article, but even such a brief overview demonstrates the high level of influence and complexity of the government's approach. All Japanese works of popular culture are engaged in the promotion and popularization of Japanese culture (traditional and modern), lifestyle, thinking, and also form a positive image of the country in the mass consciousness of citizens of other states.

Cinema and video games have been products of popular culture for the 21st century. Due to completely different forms of engagement from the previous early examples, they turned out to be a more effective propaganda tool aimed at the mass, young consumer. These two areas were the main drivers for the spread of Japanese culture outside the Asian region. However, there are significant differences between video games and cinema, not only in the form of consumer interaction with this product, but also in the context of their internal components. If anime is an original product of Japanese culture, reflecting the national cultural and ideological code of the country, then video games are not a product of one state.

The video game industry has gone a long way from being a hobby of a small group of people to a multibillion-dollar business. Today, the video game market is represented by two diametrically opposite dimensions – the products of large giant companies and the segment of enthusiastic developers (the indie market). In the first case, most well-known companies were founded in the West, which is due to the emergence of the video game industry in this region. However, gaming companies are already actively being created in the Asian region, in Eastern Europe and in Russia. The gaming industry has become so large that individual events even get into the business press, for example, the sale of GTA V ^[10] or the takeover of Blizzard by Microsoft ^[11]. Politicians are also actively paying close attention to the video game industry, noting the need to regulate the industry. Including in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin himself speaks about this ^{[12] [13]}. In 2008, the revenues of the video game industry in the United States amounted to $21 billion, which actually exceeded the revenues of the television and film industries ^[14], and the number of constantly involved players in the United States amounted to 40% of the population ^{[15, p.816]}.

However, the video game industry, like any other product of popular culture, is actively used to promote and promote any ideas, plots, narratives of a particular ideological matrix. Unfortunately, this area of study is extremely poorly represented in the scientific community. Western authors prefer to pay attention to issues related to the neoliberal and radical left social agenda, while political narratives remain largely outside the scope of consideration. In the domestic research segment, this topic is also considered mainly from the point of view of philosophical, literary and humanitarian aspects. A detailed study of video games as a product of propaganda and a political tool is extremely poorly represented. This is due to the stereotypical attitude towards video games as a product of weak intellectual leisure. The first video games were certainly like that, however, the industry has gone through a long development path and has significantly transformed. Today, there are many works on the market that represent author's statements on current topics, raising a whole range of philosophical issues in their plots. The level of production, presentation of the plot and scenario study of the video game industry is not only not inferior to cinema, but also surpasses it. This is due to the fact that video games imply a completely different type of involvement in the events taking place. The user becomes not just a witness to the story that the authors present to him, but a direct participant in it, which provides a deeper immersion, thereby exerting a stronger ideological impact. K.Falenbrah also wrote about the similar importance of video games in ideological politics in her work "Embodied Avatars in Video Games: Audiovisual Metaphors in the Interactive Design of Player Characters": "they not only represent exciting fictional worlds with such a degree of audiovisual authenticity that increasingly competes with films, but also allow players to actively interact with these worlds" ^{[16, p.251]}. Russian authors A.N. Kopanev, D.D. Kopaneva, and T.G. Chernykh noted that such immersion contributes to the more firmly rooted formation of certain images and stereotypes in the mass consciousness ^{[17, p.199]}.

For many years, the West has been actively using video games as a propaganda tool in its confrontation with Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "Russians" continued to remain in popular culture as the main antagonists. On the one hand, such a phenomenon can be considered the preservation of stereotypes of previous years. The entire mass culture of the Western world, primarily the United States, during the Cold War was aimed at dehumanizing the image of the USSR and its citizens in the mind of the average American. During all this time, stable images and stereotypes have been formed, disseminated through films, comics and books. In this regard, the continuation of this tradition in popular culture after the collapse of the USSR seems to be an obvious solution. However, considering a genre new to the mass consumer, such as video games, it is impossible to say unequivocally that their formation was influenced solely by tradition. Political processes in the world that took place during the development of various projects also played a huge role. An important clarification is the fact that the terms "Russian" and "Soviet" are equivalent for foreigners. This is due to the same stereotypical tradition, since "Russians" referred to all residents of the Soviet Union, and not a specific nationality. The following main reasons can be identified for the representation of "Russians" as antagonists in the video game industry:

1. Ideological. The preservation of negative stereotypes, images and characteristics in relation to "Russia and Russians" in the mass consciousness of the Western consumer, formed during the Cold War.

2. Political. Russia's successful policy in the international arena led to the inclusion of an anti-Russian agenda in a number of projects at the development stage. A good example is the release of Battlefield Bad Company in 2008, which was released during the deterioration of Russian-Georgian relations and shortly before the start of the operation in Tskhinvali (the "five-day war"). The game takes place in the Caucasus in a fictional country called "Serderistan", which resembles "Georgia", where the first Russian-American war unfolded. Another closer example is "Left Alive," a game released by the Japanese company Square Enix in 2019. The game takes place in an alternate reality, where an armed conflict broke out on the territory of the former Ukraine. The state entity called Ruthenia, which occupies the territories of western and central Ukraine, is becoming a victim of aggression from another fictional state, Harmony, which occupies the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine. Thus, the game clearly shows a representation of the conflict in Ukraine between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk republics.

3. Economic. In terms of volume and coverage, the Russian market (primarily for game sales in the Russian Federation and the number of active users) is significantly inferior to the European, American or Asian market. That is why Western developers consider the "Russians" as antagonists to be the safest option, since the protest of Russian-speaking users will not seriously affect the sale of projects. At the same time, the situation with the "evil Chinese" is completely different. In 2013, Battlefield 4 was released, where Russians and Chinese acted as antagonists together. The game was banned in China as a threat to national security, which cut off a large sales market ^[18]. This, along with other technical problems that accompanied the release of the project, had a critical impact on the game's sales, which were 69 percent lower than the results of the studio's previous project. After that, China hardly appeared as an antagonist in the gaming industry.

An analysis of the products of the video game industry featuring "Russia" or "the Soviet Union" allowed us to identify the following archetypes of the representation of the national state in the virtual dimension.

"The aggressor state." In such projects, the domestic state commits an act of unmotivated and unprovoked aggression against Western states aimed solely at peaceful coexistence, cooperation and development according to the internal plot synopsis of the projects. At the same time, military actions on the part of the aggressor are conducted in violation of all international conventions. One of the projects of this type is the real-time strategy game "World in Conflict", developed by the Swedish company Massive Entertainment. The game was published by the American company Vivendi Games. According to the plot of the project, which takes place in an alternative 1989, the Soviet Union, on the verge of economic collapse, unleashes the Third World War, invading the territory of Western Europe. The United States is providing military assistance to its NATO ally, but while its main forces are fighting in Europe, the Soviet Union, using civilian ships under a neutral flag, disguises its military equipment and personnel as peaceful cargo and begins an invasion of American territory.

The authors themselves cited the film "Red Dawn" ("Red Dawn"), a 1984 American film directed by J. Milius, as a source of inspiration. According to the plot of the film, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries begin to invade the United States, which was also initially caused by economic problems. The ideological content of the picture may also be evidenced by the fact that on November 23, 2022, the Milwaukee Independent published an article in which it called the "cult film" Red Dawn a source of inspiration for the "Ukrainian resistance" ^[19].

Another example of this archetype is the real-time strategy game "Tom Clancy's EndWar", developed by the Shanghai division of the French company Ubisoft in 2008. According to the game's plot, there are three Superpowers in the world – the United States, the European Federation and Russia, which is already shown in the introductory video as a deeply militarized country. In the spring of 2020, a terrorist organization calling itself the "Forgotten Army", consisting of military personnel from third World countries, attacks key facilities of the three Superpowers (using Soviet technology). In the course of the further development of the plot, players will learn that the top military and political leadership of Russia was behind the terrorist attacks, which used them to unleash the Third World War.

Another example is the game "Freedom Fighters", developed by the Danish company IO Interactive in 2003. According to the plot of the game, the Soviet Union created an atomic bomb before the United States and dropped it on Berlin, thereby winning World War II. Later, through various proxies and hybrid conflicts, the USSR invades Europe, after which it attacks the United States. At the same time, the aggression of the Soviet Union, according to the local story, is not motivated by anything.

The widespread use of this archetype in the West is indirectly evidenced by the geographical coverage of developer studios. The projects presented above were developed by various European (Swedish, Danish studios) and regional divisions of European studios in the Asian region.

"Marginal groups in power." In this case, ultra-right forces are seizing power in Russia and starting a world war. Textbook examples of this archetype are projects such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Vanquish (developer and publisher, Japanese companies Platinum Games and Sega) or the Call of Duty Modern Warfare trilogy (developer and publisher, American companies Infinity Ward and Activision). In these works, ultranationalist forces come to power in Russia, which begin an act of aggression against the United States for fabricated reasons. If in the Vanquish project it was a common conspiracy between the US president and the Russian Star organization, then in Modern Warfare 2 the attack on the United States was caused by a terrorist attack at one of the Russian airports. According to the plot of "Modern Warfare 2," the United States introduces operative J.Alyona joined the ranks of the group of the Russian nationalist V. Makarov. To unleash a military conflict between the United States and Russia, Makarov's group stages a terrorist attack at the Moscow airport, after which it kills an embedded American agent at the scene. Thus, providing the local government with evidence of US involvement in the incident. During the mission, the player himself becomes not only a witness to the shooting of peaceful Russian citizens, but also a direct participant in the crime. The mission can be completed without the player shooting at civilians, but later he will be forced by the game itself to open fire on law enforcement officers). This provocative episode, shocking from a psychological and humanistic point of view, is used to justify Russia's subsequent aggression and invasion of the United States. From a narrative point of view, the authors could not dedicate an in-game episode to this event, designating what happened in the format of a briefing before the mission, thereby not traumatizing the psyche of the players. Russian Russians, however, were not only abandoned by the developers, but they also deliberately developed an episode showing scenes of blatant brutality against unarmed civilians, giving the player the opportunity to "shoot Russians." After the game's release, the mission of "Not a word in Russian" was widely criticized in the West, by representatives of gaming journalism publications and public figures. Subsequently, the mission was cut from the Russian version of the game (the game was officially sold and distributed in the territory of the Russian Federation), and in the world players were given the opportunity to skip the episode.

In the course of the further plot of the game, Russia attacks the territory of the United States, and V. Makarov becomes the national hero of the country and the assistant to the president of Russia. Already in the next numbered part, thanks to the actions of the players, Russia begins to lose the war. President Boris Vorshevsky is going to Hamburg for peace talks with the United States. However, on the way, V. Makarov attacks the president's plane and captures it. Having gained access to nuclear weapons, he orders the detonation of dirty bombs in several European countries. In the finale of the game, thanks to the player's actions, it is possible to free B. Vorshevsky and end the war.

In 2019, the "Modern Warfare" series was relaunched. On the eve of the game's release, the developers of Infinite ward noted that their new project is not a "political statement", but seeks to demonstrate an image of modern warfare close to realism, where there are no purely positive or negative characters ^[20]. However, the final product was strikingly different from the image of the project formed by the statements of the authors. Russia is once again the main antagonist in the plot. The game takes place on the territory of fictional countries, but their real prototypes are clearly visible. According to a local story, in October 2019, during a secret operation in Verdansk (Castovia) to return a shipment of chemical weapons, a CIA agent and marines accompanying him were attacked by unknown assailants and the cargo was seized. The search for gas leads the game's protagonists (Americans from the CIA and the British from the SAS) to Uzbekistan, which is fighting the Russian occupation, led by General R. Barkov. The country itself is an allusion to Syria, and the events taking place there are an "author's reinterpretation" of Russia's military operation in the Syrian Republic.

In the game itself, the developers present a dehumanistic image of the Russian army by demonstrating its war crimes on the territory of fictional countries. The list itself is quite wide, ranging from the shooting of civilians, ending with the use of prohibited weapons (poison gas, "white phosphorus"). In their attempts to blacken the image of the Russian army, the authors even attributed the crime that occurred in the real world (the "Highway of Death") committed by the US–led coalition in Kuwait to Russia. At the same time, narrative director T. Kurosaki noted in an interview with Gamespot that his team relied on real events such as Syria and the "invasion of Soviet troops in Afghanistan" ^[21].

Thus, in the very plot of the game there are no attempts to demonstrate "gray morality", instead, the player is again presented with Russia as the antagonist, and the connection with modern events, unlike the previous iteration of the series, is very clear. If in the first game it was a Russian operation against terrorists in Syria, then in the third part of the relaunch the Russian private military company Konni (Konni Group), decommissioned from the Wagner PMCs, will appear. The main antagonists of the new series will be Russian nationalists led by V. Makarov.

According to the plot of "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" (developed by the American company Red Storm Entertainment and published by the French Ubisoft in 2001), ultranationalists led by D. Arbatov seized power in Russia, followed by the annexation of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and in April 2008 the Russian army launched an invasion of Georgia. Subsequently, using numerical superiority, which the authors especially emphasize, Russia begins an invasion of the Baltic States. The game ends with the capture of Moscow by American troops and the establishment of a new "democratic government."

"Traffickers of violence." The antagonists of the first or second plan in such projects are Russian characters. These may be retired soldiers of the regular army or special units who act as mercenaries working for a criminal or terrorist organization. This type also includes "Russian businessmen" who sell weapons to terrorists and criminals. The archetype is represented by a large number of projects of various genres. Among them: "Joint Task Force" (Developer "Most Wanted Entertainment" (Hungary), publisher Vivendi Universal Games (USA)), "Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures (CITY Interactive (Poland).

Another example is the Hitman: Contracts project, where one of the missions takes place in Siberia on the territory of a former submarine base. The task of the protagonist of the game "Agent 47" is to kill two targets: the buyer of the dirty bomb (an international terrorist) and S. Barkov, a former Red Army officer who sympathizes with the terrorists and wants to sell them this bomb.

In another famous project, "Singularity," the player is immersed in an alternate reality in which an electromagnetic surge from the uninhabited island of Katorga-12, once owned by the Soviet Union, damages an American spy satellite. Already at the very beginning, by setting the plot and choosing the names of the object, the authors form the subsequent tone of the project. A group of American Marines is being sent to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

On approach to the island, another electromagnetic surge occurs, and the helicopter crashes, and the hero begins to move between the present and 1955. The project has collected almost all the stamps related to the representation of the Soviet Union in Western media culture – "The USSR is taking over the whole world", "crazy Soviet scientists", "experiments on people", "creation of mutants", "mass camps", etc.

Projects dedicated to the Second World War are a separate area for representing "Russia" and "Russians" in the video game industry. It is necessary to immediately make a remark about the status of the works of this segment. The Second World War occupies a special place in the cultural and ideological field of Western culture. In fact, all modern myths about Western civilization are constructed and based around this significant event in world history. In the works of mass culture devoted to the Second World War, especially at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, the "American war myth" was actively promoted, the main task of which was to popularize the image of the United States as a world gendarme and to construct a favorable image of the American armed forces. In this vein, the video game industry followed the logic described above.

As part of the material, 104 projects were analyzed regarding the following parameters of the representation of the Eastern Front:

1. Completely dedicated. Projects whose narrative and location focus exclusively on the eastern theater of operations;

2. The component of the project. Video games where events in the Eastern Theater have a separate story campaign or the USSR is represented by a separate developed faction.;

3. Fragmentary presentation. Projects where the Eastern Theater is assigned one or more missions, but the main actors are not representatives of the Soviet side. In a number of video games of this segment, the USSR can also act as an opponent.

4. Not represented. Projects where the Eastern Front is completely absent from the gameplay and narrative of the game.

Of the 104 projects published in the period from 1998 to 2024 devoted to the Second World War: 10 are completely devoted to the Eastern Front (9.62%), in 19 the Eastern Front is a component of the project (18.27%), fragmentary in 10 (9.62%) and 65 completely absent (62.5%). Regarding the countries of production, 71 projects were published or developed by the United States, 25 by the United Kingdom (13 British publishers and 12 British developers), 16 by Spain (developers only), 15 by France, 11 by Sweden, 9 by Hungary, 7 by Germany, 5 by Australia, 4 – Canada, 3 – the Netherlands, 2 projects each were released by publishers and developers from Romania, Poland, Japan and Croatia, and one project each from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belgium.

Conclusion. Modern mass culture is one of the most important tools not only of the "soft power" of various European and Eastern states, but also of psychological operations. Cinema, comics, TV series, and animation represented one of the most convenient platforms for promoting ideological and political narratives in domestic and foreign markets. Even during the Second World War, the first works about superheroes or the animated show "Looney Tunes" were actively involved in anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese propaganda, creating repulsive, stereotypical images of opponents of the United States. The main category of the population targeted by these genres was the youth. Through the prism of fantastic plots or comedic situations, the viewer became the object of state propaganda. In the 21st century, video games joined the genres mentioned above. The completely different nature of engagement provided unique opportunities for the active promotion of narratives of political and ideological content.

The topic of political propaganda in video games is currently poorly understood. Researchers dealing with these issues focus on specific aspects or individual products. The trigger for this kind of research is usually resonant or provocative episodes in products entering the video game market. The skeptical and dismissive attitude towards video games in the scientific field should also be considered a problem in this area. Many people continue to perceive this genre as a weakly intellectual leisure of a niche stratum of the population. At the same time, the video game industry has long gone beyond these concepts. Today, it is one of the largest entertainment and educational industries, which has outgrown all other areas of popular culture in terms of its financial performance.

Considering such volumes of the video game industry as an industry, the presence of a wide stratum of gamers in different countries, as well as the extensive involvement of young people in video games, this market requires further scientific, theoretical and practical study.

Based on the analysis of the products of the video game industry, which includes "Russia/The Soviet Union", we can come to the following conclusions:

1. The representation of Russia in the modern video game industry is based on the same set of visual images, ideological and psychological characteristics based on stereotypical representations of Western consumers constructed by mass-produced products of the Cold War period.;

2. In most projects, the Russian state appears as an antagonist, committing an act of direct or indirect, unmotivated or motivated aggression against the entire "civilized world." In such narratives, the United States and Europe are presented exclusively as peace-loving states affected by Russia's actions.;

3. The Western gaming industry is actively promoting the image of "Russian nationalists", representatives of the so-called "ultra-right forces", who are positioned in the game itself, due to their activities, as terrorist organizations. The main objective of these projects is to promote the negative image of Russia and Russians in the mass consciousness of Western users. Given the fact that the leaders of these movements, according to the in-game plot, come to power / become national heroes, a stable association between the fictional and the real regime in Russia is formed in the minds of the player, who in parallel with the games falls under the influence of other sources of propaganda. This is facilitated by the proximity of narratives to those that circulate in the modern media space of the West.;

4. Works dedicated to the Second World War are a separate area for promoting anti-Russian narratives and images in the video game industry. The events on the Eastern Front were vividly represented in video games released in the 2000s. The developers devoted mainly individual campaigns to this theater of operations, rather than building the entire project on them. In their narrative and ideological basis, they promoted and popularized the mythologies that had developed in the Western world based on the testimony of German generals about those events: "General winter", "commissars", "mass shootings in the Red Army", etc. The video games in this segment are based on contrasting the "allies" and "East" campaigns. In the first case, players are provided with episodes full of various activities, accompanied by a high scale of what is happening. The dynamics, staging, and narrative components of the Allied Campaign correspond to classic examples of American war films from the 1990s to the 2000s. In contrast, the Soviet campaign is replete with the drabness of the scenery, the "corridor-like" gameplay, thereby not providing the user with a unique experience. From an ideological point of view, the authors deliberately distort the events of the Great Patriotic War, speculating on the myths dispelled by Russian science about those events. The main focus of the games' narrative is on demonstrating the "brutality" of the Soviet regime, which is driven by disregard for human life through scenes of mass shootings, desertion of Red Army soldiers, as well as themes of mass repression. A Russian soldier is also given a negative characterization through game design. In contrast to the protagonists of the "allies" campaign, he goes to war not out of higher motives, but guided by the fear imposed on him by the commissars. In the future, the Eastern Front will completely disappear from the campaigns dedicated to the Second World War.

The transformation of "Russians" into the main antagonists of the video game industry should not be considered solely a gaming convention following the traditions of the Cold War. The image of "Russia" and "Russians" in such projects is deliberately demonized not only through the plot and characters, but also directly through the gameplay. By allowing the player to kill "hostile NPCs" in the form of the "Soviet/Russian army," the developer deliberately dehumanizes the people, turning them into a "gray, impersonal mass." In parallel, the plot of the works explains to the player the expediency of aggressive actions in their direction, through the prism of a narrative about an external threat. Opponents in video games, as a rule, are an impersonal mass of people who adhere to some kind of aggressive, anti-humanistic ideology (ideas of racial theory, superiority, destruction of humanity, etc.). All this allows you to legalize aggressive actions in their direction, saving the player from moral dilemmas or problems associated with their elimination. So, in the video game industry, the main opponents are: Nazis, terrorists and aliens. Given their socio-historical background, as well as the prevailing ideas in society, the player has no remorse in destroying representatives of these destructive ideologies. This is the main problem of representing Russians as antagonists in video game productions. Despite apolitical counter-theses explaining this trend solely by the stereotypical tradition of Western culture in depicting Russians, which does not carry ideological and political messages, the high representation of such narratives in the video game industry indicates the opposite trend, especially if we consider this approach in a general context. If we consider the representation of antagonists in the foreign video game industry, we can clearly conclude that there are virtually no game plots where Western countries could be included in the above categories. It will be extremely difficult to find a video game where an act of unmotivated aggression would be committed by the United States and the European Union, or the power in one of them was seized by "ultranationalists" who unleashed a world war. In addition, it should be noted that the representation of "Russians" in video games is much more complicated, since even in those projects where they are not antagonists, they are at best represented in a kind of "neutral way." On closer inspection, especially against the background of the unambiguously positive "Western protagonists," they often pursue primitive goals. However, this topic requires a separate disclosure.

Despite all the restrictions imposed by Western campaigns in the direction of the ru region (they were introduced after February 2022), domestic users continue to actively purchase video games using various services. On the one hand, this demonstrates the high interest of citizens, mainly the younger generation, in these products, reinforcing their status as a significant part of modern mass culture. On the other hand, such interest is another signal for the government to pay close attention to this industry.

The development of its own video game industry, through the prism of which it is possible to promote traditional spiritual and moral values and its own ideological narratives, should become one of the components of the modern policy of the national state. The main emphasis should be placed on the national culture, reflecting its distinctive elements, unique folklore and centuries-old history. Given the current situation, the development of the video game industry should be carried out with the help of government institutions, encouraging the emergence of new studios and training personnel through educational programs in institutions of higher and secondary education. The driver for the rapid development of the video game industry in Russia may be the emergence of a large "AAA" product (games with a large budget and a long development period) that can interest not only the domestic market, but also the foreign one. It is worth taking as a basis the successful experience of Chinese developers who released the worldwide hit "Black Myth Wukong", which not only sold 22.5 million copies, which brought in $ 1 billion in profit (with a budget of $ 70 million), but also received high marks from players and the press (96.6%) ^[22], and It also contributed to the growth of the entire Chinese market. Revenue from sales of Chinese games abroad increased by 21%, revenue from sales in the domestic market amounted to 12.9 billion dollars, which showed an increase of 8.95% over the same time period last year ^[23]. In this case, it is important to note several points. The first is the emphasis on representing one's own culture without attempting to westernize it. The authors of the game took as a basis the classics of Chinese literature "Journey to the West" and their own mythology, using only the traditional approach of Western developers to games of this genre, with a number of simplifications, which allowed them to attract an additional audience.

The second key element should be the focus on the global segment, instead of focusing solely on the domestic market. The authors of "Black Myth Wukong" released the game on the two main and most widespread platforms on the PC in the Steam digital distribution service and on the PlayStation 5 console, which also ensured not only high sales, but also increased interest in Chinese culture in the world.

Based on this positive example, the domestic gaming industry should move in this direction with the mandatory support of the state within the framework of the Institute for the Development of the Internet (IRI). As of the spring of 2024, the Institute has funded 40 domestic products with a total value of 1.5 billion rubles ^[24]. However, all of them belong to the category of indie projects (small budgets, the scale of the game itself and the development team), which, among other things, cannot attract a wide audience due to genre specifics. Examples of such projects include the real-time strategy "Cutting Edge", the turn-based strategy "Sparta 2035" or the card roglike "Immortal. Tales of Old Russia" (funded by the domestic 1C Game Studios).

The domestic gaming industry needs an "Atomic Heart" level project. The work of the Mundfish studio could serve as an excellent example of a positive approach to the domestic gaming industry, however, this is hindered by the following factors: the registration of the studio in Cyprus and the distancing of developers from the RU region by positioning themselves as an "international team" ^[25]. After February 24, 2022, the development studio deleted all references to the fact that their office was located in Moscow and completely disowned "their Russian origin" ^[26]. The positioning of the developer studio attracted the attention of representatives of the foreign press. E. Nightingale, a journalist for Eurogamer, expressed significant concern in his article "Questions remain over Atomic Heart developer's Russian origins" that the game, due to its setting and the origin of the developer studio, "glorifies the image of Russia and the Soviet Union" ^[26]. The article also provides unconfirmed information about Mundfish's cooperation with the Russian government, and the fact that Russia disappeared from the list of countries where the company's representatives came from raises additional suspicions in Nightingale. Special emphasis in the material is placed on the fact that the release of the game was scheduled for the anniversary of the "Russian invasion of Ukraine" and on the lack of clear comments from the developers about these events ^[26]. Such material is a clear example of the lack of "apoliticality" in the video game industry. However, a detailed study of the game reveals a number of characteristic Western narratives in the representation of the Soviet Union in the popular culture of Western countries.

Thus, it is required to combine all the approaches described above. First of all, it is necessary to form a development team. Considering the fact that training programs in the domestic educational system are at the stage of active formation, freelancers or existing development teams should be taken as a basis. The next step should be to allocate a budget comparable to or greater than Black Myth:Wukong. The project will have to be released on the main domestic and Western platforms. In its plot, visual style and narratives, it will be based on Russian culture with a positive representation of Russia and Russians.