Призрак советского человека

Социология власти. 2019. Т. 31. № 4. С. 53–94.

Titkov A. S.

This article reconstructs the theoretical logic underlying the "Soviet Man" research project by Yuri Levada's group. Based on the project's publications, it reconstructs an "early" model, which includes a set of attitudes toward the "antinomies" of the Soviet system, and a later model, which emphasizes a set of adaptive characteristics ("adapted," "two-faced," etc.). It elucidates the empirical and theoretical foundations that prompted the project's authors to abandon their initial hypothesis of a "vanishing type" of Soviet man. It traces the connection between the dynamics of the "Soviet Man" project and Yuri Levada's early theoretical work in the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, the shift in his interests from structural analysis to problems of action. The theoretical premises of Levada's critical texts from the post-Soviet period (the concepts of "social fracture" and "degenerate case") are elucidated. The role of the Levada group's general methodological principles is emphasized: the "transposition" of Western sociological concepts in describing the Soviet/Russian case; elucidation of the historical context in which these terms arose; comparison with the "generalized West"; and the obligatory linking of research objectives to the "big problems" of one's own society (state). The possibilities of updating ("reverse transposition") Levada's theoretical developments within an academic community that does not share the project's basic methodological principles are discussed. Potential topics for academic discussion include a comparison of the concepts of modernization in the USSR proposed by Levada and the late Parsons in The System of Modern Societies, as well as the potential of Levada's concept for explaining and predicting social change on a generational (decade) scale.

Keywords: советский человек, поколенческий анализ, post-communist transition, generational analysis, Soviet man, посткоммунистический переход