Abstract
<jats:p> Sergei Loznitsa’s films are here analyzed as deconstructions of Soviet documentary film image and its combination of “certainty” (dostovernost’) with “poetry of truth” (poesiia pravdy), an impossible synthesis in film aesthetics between the ideological dogma and collective experiences during and after Stalinism. Both in his documentaries filmed <jats:italic>in situ</jats:italic> and in his archival compilations, non-acted as well as acted historical productions, Loznitsa recomposes Soviet propaganda and unmasks the claim to historical testimony inherent in all cinema as technology and image. His critical position vis-a-vis post-Cold war European memory politics and unresolved differences with current memory politics in wartime Ukraine are (post-)European rather than post-Soviet issues, but there appears a continuity here that requires further discussion. </jats:p>