Sovok — a type of mindset and way of life characteristic of the typical inhabitants of the Soviet state. Beyond that, the everyday reality of Russia bred a particular kind of person who likewise acquired the popular nickname sovok.
The sovok is a lover of freebies and booze; if intelligent, generally a good-natured fatalist who couldn't care less; if dim, a stubborn and often spiteful time-waster ("imitation of frantic activity"), incapable of doing a proper job. Any number of other anecdotal traits could be added to the list.
The essence of the phenomenon
A defining feature of the Soviet (and authoritarian systems in general) was kormlenie — that is, profit derived not from work but from occupying a particular position.
The key, in other words, was to secure a spot, a position, and then simply consume the status it conferred: essentially a purely feminine logic — what matters is getting into bed with the right man, after which everything ought to come for free.
Elements of this phenomenon exist in virtually any large system — large corporations, for instance, are rife with it; strictly speaking, it can only be avoided in very small structures where everything is out in the open. In order to secure some position or obtain privileges, the sovok may expend tremendous energy, but that energy goes not toward improving quality of life, but toward elbowing other sovoks out of desirable spots. In this regard, one can confidently say that elements of the dreary sovok are present in the West as well, even though the foundation on which Western civilization was built is strictly the opposite. That is to say, this kind of behavior within a hierarchy exists everywhere, but only The Feminine Essence of Russia can it become dominant.
Legacy
Elements of sovok that have survived the collapse of the USSR, perestroika, and the default virtually unchanged and remain the same to this day:
- The Soviet anthem
- "The Red Banner Above Us" (©) — in the Armed Forces
- Lenin's Mausoleum (Moscow)
- The system of underground bunkers and bomb shelters, used in parallel as a public transit system, also known as the metro (Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Samara)
- Soviet champagne
- Employment record books
- Passport offices and other points of direct contact with the state bureaucratic apparatus
Sovok 2.0
An upgraded version of sovok: the new sovok hates everything Soviet. He sits in traffic in a Ford Focus bought on credit and has almost finished building his dacha. He is repelled by the life of the backward sovoks of the last century, with their carpets on the walls, bad cars, and not-quite-up-to-standard household appliances.
Where It Can Be Seen
Russian singers performing songs in atrocious English for a Russian audience that barely understands the lyrics — a phenomenon that sometimes baffles foreigners — is sovok in its live, authentic form. Sovok, incidentally, knows no upper or lower class: it is uniformly and identically present everywhere.
The Positive Value of Sovok
The harsh conditions of life in Russia compel people to seek spiritual sustenance, and only a person oriented toward spirituality will be able to live in peace and not fear an aggressive external environment.
And indeed, in line with the message of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, only a focus on internal reserves will help put life in the country in order. Otherwise, the potentially aggressive environment will simply devour conformists. If only by the principle of communicating vessels: if you live well and prosperously while your neighbors live poorly and are drunks to boot, the external environment will demand that you share (the Bolshevik principle of equality), which will in all likelihood manifest itself in the form of home burglaries and other unpleasantries. The West, admittedly, found a solution — there are neighborhoods for the poor and neighborhoods for the rich — but we are not the West; we have our own specifics, there is no getting a free ride: either change from within, or live in fear for your property and your loved ones.