Homo Sovieticus: 20 Years After the End of the Soviet Union

Author(s): Sergei Gogin
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Aglaya Snetkov, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 109
Pages: 12-15
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute of History, University of Basel
Publication Year: 2012

This article analyzes the nature and origins of Homo Sovieticus in the Soviet Union, and assesses its impact on contemporary Russian society. It argues that the establishment of the power-vertical by the Putin regime and its glorification of the Soviet past served to reproduce many of the worst traits of Homo Sovieticus in Russia, in particular distrust of others, social apathy and deference to authority. However, as the recent demonstrations indicate, if the inter-personal ties destroyed by the Soviet period can be restored within Russian society, then nostalgia for the Soviet era will soon become a phenomenon of the past.

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