The Spectre of the Soviet Man

Abstract

The article restores the theoretical logic behind Yuri Levada and his team’s 
research project, “Soviet Man”. Based on the project’s publications, the article reconstructs both the “early” model, which included a set of attitudes 
toward the “antinomies” of the Soviet system, as well as the later model 
which emphasized a set of adaptive characteristics (“adapted”, “two-faced”, 
etc.). The empirical and theoretical foundations that prompted the authors 
of the project to abandon the original hypothesis about the “disappearing type” of the Soviet man are clarified. There is a connection between 
the dynamics of the “Soviet Man” project and the early theoretical works 
of Yuri Levada in the 1970s and 1980s; specifically, there is a shift in his 
interests from structural analysis to action problems. The theoretical prerequisites of the critical texts of the Levada of the post-Soviet period (the 
concepts of “social change”, “degenerate case”) are clarified. The role of 
the general methodological guidelines of the Levada group is emphasized: 
“transposing” the concepts of Western sociology in describing the Soviet / 
Russian case; elucidating the historical context in which the terms arose; 
attempting a comparison with the “generalized West”, the obligatory linking of research tasks to the “big problems” of their society Possibilities of 
updating (“reverse transposing”) the theoretical developments of Levada 
within the framework of the academic community that does not share 
the basic methodological principles of the project are discussed. As possible topics for academic discussion, a comparison of the conceptions of 
modernization in the USSR —introduced by Levada and the late Parsons 
in the System of Modern Societies—is proposed, as well as the possibilities of the Levada’s concept for explaining and predicting social changes 
across generations.