Soviet Man as a Knowable Reality. Part Тwo

Abstract

The examination of works by G.L. Smirnova, A.A. Zinoviev, and V.I. Tolstykh in the first part of the article has shown that all of them failed in developing philosophical and sociological analysis of the phenomenon of the Soviet man. The second part of the article is to show that such analysis is possible, as evidenced by the works of N.N. Kozlova, T.I. Zaslavskaya, and Yu.A. Levada with his staff. Kozlova’s methodology is focused on showing the characteristic types of Soviet society and revealing a mechanism of transformation of initially different people into standartized Soviet person. Teaching children, young people, and adults, the authorities were creating a nomination, or a designation of the world elements. Kozlova examines this process on the example of the peasantry. Zaslavskaya's methodology is a macro-sociological analysis of Soviet people based on the late 1990^s – early 2000^s research, in which the Soviet person is represented as socio-demographic, socio-economic, sociocultural and activity-related aspects of “human potential”. Levada’s methodology is a specific sociological monitoring of contemporary society with the description of the quantitative indicators of the basic Soviet person nature characteristics. These characteristics let the researchers make conclusions and pay special attention to the problems of an individual and a team connection and an individual’s relations with the state power. The article concludes that the three methodological approaches as complementary and mutually correcting can be significant for further comprehensive development of the phenomenon of the Soviet man.