Abstract
<jats:p>The article traces the history of documentary aesthetics in the Soviet Union and beyond. It outlines the trajectory of documentary practices since their heydays in the 1920s and the 1960s to the present, integrating Eastern European developments into the broader history of documentary aesthetics. By focusing on the documentation of traumatic historical events and societal change, the article foregrounds concepts such as witnessing, testimony, and the ethics of documentation and archival work. A comparative approach reveals both the uses and abuses of documentary art within the controlled literary environment of the Soviet Union as well as under contemporary conditions, emphasizing the subversive and sometimes interventionist character of documentary practices.</jats:p>