Soviet man
The history and ambivalence surrounding a collective singular form
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Cultural constructs such as that of the homo sovieticus have helped shape our understanding of the Soviet Union. Svetlana Alexievich’s literary anthropology and the sociograms of the staff at the Levada Center draw our historical view of the individuals and society in the Soviet Union more sharply into focus. However, this anthropological type suggests a general validity and homogeneity that fails to do justice to the diversity and openness of individual and social development in the USSR and in the post-Soviet states.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2018, pp. 55–82)