Homo Sovieticus: A species once thought extinct turns out to be very much alive.

Sightings of Homo Sovieticus

by Martin Ehl

Homo sovieticus in various forms has returned with new strength. The possibility that Central Europe might not become part of the West has thus dramatically increased.

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So to recap, what were (are?) the behavioral patterns for the species known as homo sovieticus, according to Tornquist-Pleva:

• moral relativism
• learned passivity, helplessness, and the acceptance of state paternalism
• the demand for egalitarian distribution as opposed to a merit-based system
• blaming the system for personal failures and laying various claims at the foot of the state, as opposed to relying on one’s self
• an emphasis on security as opposed to a willingness to take risks.

That list, based on a study of socialist states from the time of Soviet rule, describes surprisingly well the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The victors in elections are those parties that promise a strong role for the state in taking care of citizens from cradle to grave. The legacy of socialism is thus stronger than it might seem.

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Read more: www.tol.org

Homo Sovieticus (pseudo-Latin for "Soviet Man") is a sarcastic and critical reference to a category of people with a specific mindset that were allegedly created by the governments of the Eastern Bloc. The term was coined by well-known Soviet writer and sociologistAleksandr Zinovyev as the title of his book of the same name.[1] Zinovyew also coined a newspeak-style abbreviation homosos(гомосос). A similar term in Russian slang is sovok (совок), which is derived from Soviet but also means scoop.

Contents [hide]
1 Characteristics
2 See also
3 References
4 Further reading
Characteristics[edit]

The idea that the Soviet system would create a new, better kind of person was first postulated by the advocates of the Soviet system; they called it the "New Soviet man". Homo Sovieticus, however, was a term with negative connotations, invented by opponents to describe what they said was 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 (as expressed in the saying "They pretend they are paying us, and we pretend we are working"), and lack of initiative.
• Indifference to common property and petty theft from the workplace, both for personal use and for profit.[2] A line from a popular song, "Everything belongs to the kolkhoz, everything belongs to me" ("все теперь колхозное, все теперь мое" vse teper kolkhoznoye, vse teper moye), meaning that people on collective farms treasured all common property as their own, was sometimes used ironically to refer to instances of petty theft. The Law of Spikelets, which made stealing from the collective punishable by ten years’ imprisonment, was a failed attempt to break this attitude.
• Isolation from world culture, created by the Soviet Union's restrictions on travel abroad and strict censorship of information in themedia (as well as the abundance of propaganda). The intent was to insulate the Soviet people from Western influence; instead, "exotic" Western culture became more interesting precisely because it was forbidden. Soviet officials called this fascination "Western idolatry" (идолопоклонничество перед Западом idolopoklonnichestvo pered Zapadom).
• Obedience or passive acceptance of everything that government imposes on them (see authoritarianism).
• Avoidance of taking any individual responsibility on anything.
• According to a former US ambassador to Kazakhstan, a tendency to drink heavily: "[a Kazakh defence minister] appears to enjoy loosening up in the tried and true Homo Sovieticus style – i.e., drinking oneself into a stupor."[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Sovieticus