During the war years, the creation of an image of an ally or enemy could take place through a rich range of forms and methods: publishing pamphlets, holding traveling exhibitions and concerts, showing films, giving lectures, and making media appearances.
This article is an attempt to describe the image of Red Army soldiers and officers in 1943–1945, which was formed by means of cinematography and a memo for soldiers of the contingent of troops stationed in Europe, published on the eve of the meeting on the Elbe.
In the article, the authors come to the conclusion that the symbolic policy in the United States during the period under review was reoriented towards the formation of new ideas about the USSR and Soviet citizens. Negative cliches gave way to positive images of reliable allies in the fight against Nazi Germany. At the same time, the principle of identification was actively used: the citizens of the Soviet Union and their way of life were positioned in terms of focusing on similarities with the patterns of American culture.