This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Sovietization is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct (but related) meanings:
- the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils).
- the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union.
The term was one of numerous "-ation" buzzwords in Soviet phraseology, along with electrification, collectivization, korenizatsiya, etc.
A notable wave of Sovietization (in the second meaning) occurred during and after World War II in Eastern Europe. In a broad sense, this included (mostly not voluntary) adoption of Soviet-like institutions, laws, customs, traditions and the Soviet way of life, both on a national level and in smaller communities. This was usually promoted and speeded up by propaganda aimed at creating a common way of life in all states within the Soviet sphere of influence. In many cases, Sovietization was also accompanied by forced resettlement of large categories of "class enemies" (kulaks, or osadniks, for instance) to the Gulag labor camps and exile settlements.1
In a narrow sense, the term Sovietization is often applied to mental and social changes within the population of the Soviet Union and its satellites2 which led to creation of the new Soviet man (according to its supporters) or Homo Sovieticus (according to its critics).3
Most recently the term "Sovietization" is applied in a derogatory sense to processes in Russia under Putin, with various authors putting various, often mutually contradictory, meanings in the word referring to various attributes of the former Soviet Union.
References
- ^ various authors (2001). "Stalinist Forced Relocation Policies". in Myron Weiner, Sharon Stanton Russell. Demography and National Security. Berghahn Books. pp. 308–315. ISBN 1-57181-339-X.
- ^ (Polish) Józef Tischner (2005). Etyka solidarności oraz Homo sovieticus. Kraków: Znak. p. 295. ISBN 83-240-0588-9.
- ^ Aleksandr Zinovyev (1986). Homo sovieticus. Grove/Atlantic. ISBN 0-87113-080-7.
- Edward J. O'Boyle (January 1993). "Work Habits and Customer Service in Post-Communist Poland". International Journal of Social Economics 20 (1).
See also
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 14 December 2008, at 04:02.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Sovietization".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.