What do you think a typical Homo Sovieticus is?

  Yuri SAYENKO, Doctor of Economics, sociologist:
I still think it better to use the idea of a Soviet slave instead of Homo Sovieticus. This is an individual brought up by a system totally permeated with slavery which equally subjugated the common people (slaves) and the elite (lords). Both were subject to robbery, both could be punished at any moment. This shaped a special, still firmly entrenched, mentality. Look at the way the former feudal lords behave in independent Ukraine. They try to amass as many riches as possible as fast as possible. Only a chronically browbeaten person can behave so outrageously. It is fear that begets permissiveness. Remember also that the Soviet citizen lived in a regimented and standardized society of the collective-farm type. Our society has inherited this non-acceptance of different models, behavioral patterns, and variability in decision-making, as well as intellectual timidity. A classical slave-owning society not only humiliated pariahs but also had an elite which produced a bold philosophical thought, scientific discoveries, and cultural masterpieces. A Soviet man, a Soviet slave, lives in a cultural vacuum. He is not aware of traditions, he is an eternal time-server. This is his tragedy. Yet, remaining slavish, we are in constant danger that Ukraine may see the real restoration of the system on which we still depend psychologically. And we shouldn't blame this on the people afflicted with the Soviet disease, for essentially they have never been offered a new model of life during the years of independence. The Soviet slave's memory also reaches out to the past because no one has so far persuaded him to be free or given an example of what that is.

  Oles ULIANENKO, author
A Soviet person is a one who nurses his hangover three times a day, goes back on his word, does not value himself or anybody else, and is absolutely ignorant of what he is living for. On the contrary, a cultured person respects himself and others, and tries to live so that as little evil as possible is brought into this world. For example, [actor and poet] Vysotsky is for me a typical Homo Sovieticus, in spite of his talent, while [dissident poet] Galich is a man of culture. I wouldn't say the Soviet man is the creature of an exclusively Soviet way of life. America also has is own counterparts, but they may be named differently. And, in the final analysis, all of us are sovoks, for we usually take notice of what we can cash in on and very often try to hitch a ride to paradise on someone else's back.

  Volodymyr PAVLIV, journalist

This is a person absolutely ignorant of the traditions of his genus, i.e., what and where he comes from. Nor does he care where he is going. He is indifferent to everything but his stomach. Our society is creeping with sovoks. They are very easy to identify by their aggressive manners amounting to zoological impudence. All you have to do to see a Homo Sovieticus is go to any subway station. You will at once detect them among those who actively elbow their way or swing the door open.

  Mykhailo SLABOSHPYTSKY, literary critic

A typical Homo Sovieticus is an individual who draws spiritual power and inspiration in creating and fighting the enemy. A sovok's distinguishing features are intolerance, aggressiveness and extraordinary obtrusiveness. He sticks his nose in everywhere: whether Blacks being discriminated in America, whether anti-Saddam sanctions are fair, or whether the Baltic states infringe on the rights of the Russian-speaking population. In a word, it is a crazy interference in all things most often accompanied by absolute slovenliness in such person's home. A typical sovok is a maximalist. This was considered a high virtue in the Soviet Union, although maximalists, with their revolutionary fervor bordering on idiocy, could hardly do anything good for society. As to facts of our current life, I think Verkhovna Rada is a vivid manifestation of the Soviet mentality, not only through the Deputies' specific ways of behavior - rudeness, inability to hear an opponent, and populist rhetoric - but also, in broader terms, the manner of pursuing policies, for a Homo Sovieticus is not a mere maximalist who wants to change everything in the world according to abstract patterns, he also bargains when doing so. For nothing in the world is cheaper than a sovok's convictions.

  Vadym SKURATIVSKY, Doctor of Art Criticism:

A Soviet man usually swung between such poles as extreme slavery and extreme heroism. Both things vanished in 1980-1990, and Homo Sovieticus turned into a caricatured Western man or, to be more exact, an average man, i.e., the now prevailing planetary type. This is my answer.
 

  Mykola RUSHKOVSKY, People's Artist of Ukraine:

To my mind, a Homo Sovieticus is above all a person who always tries to tell which way the wind is blowing and not to miss a lucrative moment, but who also easily switches sides, as if he were a chameleon, when this is required by the historical, political, or general situation. This is absolute civic and philosophical cretinism, readiness to suck up to any new leader or prevalent idea. I think it extremely primitive to put this largely abusive brand indiscriminately on absolutely all those who were born, raised, and lived most of their lifetime under the Soviet system. I know quite a few people who held high posts under Soviet power and implemented the Communist Party line, but still remained profoundly decent and, incidentally, have not betrayed their principles even today. Yet, I also saw in those times tens and hundreds of militant sovoks who zealously toed the general line only for their own personal gain. It is noteworthy that many of them are running down today what they supposedly believed in much more loudly and fervently than others. Timeservers always survive. Yesterday he denigrated religion, dogged the believers, and was proud of his atheism, and today he crosses himself, lights candles in church, and unctuously listens to the liturgy.

Serhiy MASLOBOISHCHYKOV, film director:

I believe the sovok's main feature is total disrespect for the individual. This is shown not only in his impudence toward those around him but also in utter indifference to his own inner world. In fact this is a person without heartfelt secrets or privacy. All he has is open, overt, and obvious. So it is very easy to forecast and identify the actions and reactions of such an individual. To some extent,  Homo Sovieticus is ideal material for any ideological manipulation. Those in power feel affection for him, for a person like this is easy to mold due to his one-dimensional mindset and predictability. Incidentally, among other things, the Soviet mentality is not a local psychological territory of the former Soviet Union. For instance, this kind of mentality is very typical of today's America.

The polling was conducted by Lesia GANZHA,  Serhiy VASYLIEV, and Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day