Soviet Man as a Cognizable Reality. Part I

Abstract

The first part of the article analyzes the views of three researchers of the Soviet reality: G.L. Smirnova, A.A. Zinoviev and V.I. Tolstoy. There are several reasons to analyze these differently thinking scientists in one text. The first one: their common main theme of the Soviet man is one of the central ones for the approaching date of the 100th anniversary of the USSR formation. The second reason: the common background of their consideration of the subject is the phenomenon of the Soviet communism. And finally the third reason: life-affirming moral message important for values formation can be found their books. Nevertheless, their results are different. For G.L. Smirnov the Soviet man is a propaganda ideological construct, a model designed to cultivate ideological consolidation and homogeneity of the society. The Soviet man of A.A. Zinoviev is the result of the researcher's personal reflection on the free self-determination of a person as a heavy burden in the realities of the USSR. This personal reflection is dressed in scientific clothes and coupled with the fatalistic sureness in the invariability of the social choice once made by the country. For V.I. Tolstoy the Soviet man is a personal experience of living with a dominant attitude to criticize the "bad", but not to forget about the "good" in the real Soviet system past.

The result of the research of all the authors is the same: none of them has made a philosophical and sociological analysis of the phenomenon of the Soviet man. The second part of the article is devoted to the fact that such analysis is possible and presented in the Soviet man researching experience and in works of N.N. Kozlova, T.I. Zaslavskaya, Yu.A. Levada and his team.