The Myth of St. Petersburg in the Soviet Cinema throughout Gogol's The Overcoat adaptations

Since its foundation in 1703, St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad has become a recurrent myth of Russian culture. The city has been the symbol of the westernization of Russia. Different studies on this phenomenon have been limited to literary research on this mythmaking, but no approaches have been offered by film studies. This article offers an analysis of the depiction of the city in two soviet films which offer new versions of the aforementioned myth: The Overcoat: A Film-Play in the Manner of GogollShinel' Kino-pesa v manere Gogolia, (Kozintsev and Trauberg, 1926) and in The Overcoat/Shinel' (Batalov, 1956). Throughout Gogol's work, soviet adaptations reveal the way in which cultural heritage was relevant and how a myth can make sense to a society that needs to define its identity.