Soviet Mentality 01
Soviet Mentality – the Negative Legacy [Related Post]
As a Russian speaker, I have maintained friendships and relationships with people from the former Soviet Union (the USSR) for decades. Actually, I’m NOW writing this post in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the middle of the ongoing war.
Of course, there exist millions of people with millions of personalities in each nation ALL over the World. So I should refrain from concluding a specific nation’s personality as the one. Having said that, no one can deny the fact that there are specific archetypal inclinations of the personality in a specific country, even in a region, a state, a city, or a community, reflecting their unique history and traditions.
Homo Sovieticus
7 Major Characteristics of Soviet Mentality
1: Collectivism over Individualism
2: Doublethink and Skepticism
“To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone – to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink – greetings!” (1984, George Orwell)
3: Dependence on the State
4: Austerities and Resourcefulness
5: Skepticism towards Wealth
6: Fatalism and Endurance – Avos (Авось) Optimism
7: Deep Nostalgia
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Further reading (sponsored by Amazon):
● Isaiah Berlin (2004). The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism. 290 pages. Brookings Institution Press.
(sponsored by Amazon)
In “The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism,” Isaiah Berlin's response to the Soviet Union was central to his identity, both personally and intellectually. “The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism” includes essays that have never been published before, as well as works that are NOT widely known because they were published under pseudonyms to protect Isaiah Berlin’s relatives living in Russia. “The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism” will assume its rightful place among Isaiah Berlin's works and will prove invaluable for policymakers, students, and those interested in Russian politics, past, present, and future!
Table of Contents
Foreword by Strobe Talbott
Preface by Henry Hardy
The Arts in Russia under Stalin
A Visit to Leningrad
A Great Russian Writer
Conversations with Akhmatova and Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Why the Soviet Union Chooses to Insulate Itself
The Artificial Dialectic: Generalissimo Stalin and the Art of Government
Four Weeks in the Soviet Union
Soviet Russian Culture
The Survival of the Russian Intelligentsia
Glossary of Names by Helen Rappaport
Further Reading
Index
