The newly released epic Russian film Admiral exemplifies the nation’s effort to build a post-Communist culture with new heroes embodying traditional ideals. Unfortunately, dislike of foreigners seems to be a big part of the process.

Admiral tells the story of Alexander Kolchak, whom Reuters describes as "a former naval hero who led White Russian forces into battle against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and briefly became Supreme Governor of Russia before meeting an untimely end at the hands of a communist firing squad."

During the Soviet era, the Communist powers taught hatred of Kolchak, but he is an apt hero in post-communist Russia as the society seeks to reconnect with its previous history, which was thoroughly suppressed by the Kremlin under Communism.

Heroes from the Tsarist past allow contemporary Russians to feel a sense of patriotism and restore faith in their characteristic belief in Russia as a great nation with a speical place in history while it struggles through the growing pains of establishing a viable economy and functioning society after the rootlessness and disorder of the first years of transition out from under Communist domination.

"It’s very important we talk about our history, our country, our officers," director Andrei Kravchuk said, according to Reuters. "If we understand that we had such a history, such people… we can fill ourselves with dignity, and the notion of motherland and patriotism, which can seem worn and tarnished, gains new, concrete, visible meaning."

The film opened in over a thousand theaters across Russia today, and cost $20 million to make, a huge budget for a Russian film. It "portrays Kolchak as a fearless naval commander, loving father, dashing lover and principled leader of the doomed White Russians as they make a final stand in the winter snow," Reuters notes.

Hostility toward foreigners and a sense that other people are the root cause of Russia’s problems is an attitude that the Soviet Union shared with pre-Revolutionary Russia, and it is proving to be an important element of the effort to build a post-Soviet Russian culture as well. That’s manifest in Admiral and other films in what Reuters describes as "a series of historical epics which resurrect pre-revolutionary Russian heroes who battle bravely against impossible odds, dogged by foreign villains."

The Reuters story outlines some of them:

Audiences have already been treated to "1612" showing Polish troops thrown back from Moscow and "Alexander: The Battle on the Neva" where the hero fights off marauding Swedes; a new look at Ivan the Terrible is promised.

Echoing the anti-foreigner theme, "Admiral" opens with Kolchak commanding an imperial Russian warship in the Baltic as it lures a German enemy vessel to destruction in a minefield. It closes with Kolchak betrayed to the Reds by a French general who was supposed to be his ally.

As the Russians correctly seek to develop a culture expressing and strengthening a more positive view of the Russian people and their history, it’s perhaps inevitable that it would involve a tendency to blame others for the nation’s problems.

That may be good for their self-esteem, but it can’t be more than a temporary fix. Worse, it may greatly impede the development of a liberal culture that can equip Russians to embrace the political and social conditions necessary for real prosperity and a nation’s ability to control its own destiny. That would be a real tragedy.