In a current globalized world, all peoples face a burning issue of preserving their national identity. For Ukrainians, it is exacerbated by Russia’s forceful attempts at actual genocide, carried out for more than one century, made even more active since February 2022. In shaping national identity, history and culture play a pivotal role, cinema culture particularly. Ukraine’s own native cinema has been evolving for more than a century, aspiring to mirror urgent social issues, including those of preserving and developing national conscience, Historical cinema reveals the factors that have influenced the Ukrainian ethnos – ancient, agricultural, with its genetic code rooted in rural life.

Cinematography is part of public infrastructure, one of the ways of implementing historical policies, also reflecting social policies. The article surveys the cinematic display of the role and place of countryside in the policies of states existing at Ukrainian turf since the birth of cinema as such. Under Russian Tsarism – some attention to Ukrainian ethnography, defined foremost by country life. Next, the Soviet times marked with the collectivization of agriculture. Examples are given how political guidelines were implemented into country life, with particular attention to O. Dovzhenko’s film «Land». Contrary to prevailing victim moods, there are cases of cinematic demonstration of resistance exercised by Ukrainian peasants against the Bolshevik oppression. This only became possible in the independent Ukraine. Before that, many pages of its history have been distorted or made unavailable, among them the Holodomor, internationally recognized as genocide. The Holodomor is Ukraine’s core historic trauma. Still, there is historical evidence of its people’s resilience and vitality, where the grit of countryfolks met the glory of the brave Cossack nature.

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