The Afterlife of the Soviet Man - Gulnaz Sharafutdinova Kartoniert (TB)

Almost three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union today more often than ever global media and intellectuals rely on the concept of homo sovieticus to explain Russia's authoritarian ills. Homo sovieticus - or the Soviet man - is understood to be a double-thinking suspicious and fearful conformist with no morality an innate obedience to authority and no public demands they have been forged in the fires of the totalitarian conditions in which they find themselves. But where did this concept come from? What analytical and ideological pillars does it stand on? What is at stake in usi ng this term today? The Afterlife of the 'Soviet Man' addresses all these questions and even explains why - at least in its contemporary usage - this concept should be abandoned altogether.