Homo Sovieticus is a sarcastic and critical reference to an average conformist person in the Soviet Union also observed in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. The term was popularized by Soviet writer and sociologist Aleksandr Zinovyev, who wrote the book titled Homo Sovieticus. Michel Heller asserted that the term was coined in the introduction of a 1974 monograph "Sovetskye lyudi" to describe the next level of evolution of humanitythanks to the success of Marxistsocial experiment. In a book published in 1981, but available in samizdat in the 1970s, Zinovyev also coined an abbreviation homosos.
Characteristics
The idea that the Soviet system would create a new, better kind of Soviet people was first postulated by the advocates of the system; they called the prospective outcome the "New Soviet man". Homo Sovieticus, however, was a term with largely negative connotations, invented by opponents to describe what they saw as the real result of Soviet policies. In many ways it meant the opposite of the New Soviet man, someone characterized by the following:
Indifference to the results of his labour.
Lack of initiative and avoidance of taking any individual responsibility for anything. Jerzy Turowicz wrote: "it's a person enslaved, incapacitated, deprived of initiative, unable to think critically; he expects – and demands – everything to be provided by the state, he cannot and doesn't want to take his fate in his own hands".
Chauvinism. The Soviet Union's restrictions on travel abroad and strict censorship of information in the media aimed to insulate the Soviet people from Western influence. There existed non-public "ban lists" of Western entertainers and bands, which, in addition to the usual criteria of not conforming to fundamental Soviet values, were added to the list for rather peculiar reasons; one such example being the Irish band U2, the name of which resembled that of Lockheed U-2, a high-altitude U.S. reconnaissance airplane. As a result, "exotic" Western popular culture became more interesting precisely because it was forbidden. Due to limited exposure, entertainers considered minor, B-list, or of low artistic value in the West were regarded as A-list in the Soviet sphere. Soviet officials called this fascination "Western idolatry" / "Idolatry before the West".
Obedience to or passive acceptance of everything that government imposes.
In the opinion of a former US ambassador to Kazakhstan, a tendency to drink heavily: " appears to enjoy loosening up in the tried and true Homo Sovieticus style – i.e., drinking oneself into a stupor".
According to Leszek Kolakowski, the Short course history of the CPSU played a crucial role in forming the key social and mental features of the Homo Sovieticus as a "textbook of false memory and double thinking". Over the years, Soviet people were forced to continuously repeat and accept constantly changing editions of the Short course, each containing a slightly different version of the past events. This inevitably led to forming "a new Soviet man: ideological schizophrenic, honest liar, person always ready for constant and voluntary mental self-mutilations".
Homo post-sovieticus
Since 1991 interest has extended to the phenomenon of homo post-sovieticus.
