The Concept of the “New Soviet Man” and Its Short History
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The concept of the New Soviet Man remains a topic of on-going scholarly interest for a number of reasons: it reflects a vital part of Russian history, it remains associated with positive and negative connotations that still need to be explored, and it functions as a crossroads for different scholarly perspectives. It remains a topic of interest also because there are still a number of unexplored questions about the concept from the perspective of the history of ideas and philosophy. This article focuses on the reconstruction of the ethical concept of a New Soviet Man over time. It argues that there were three periods in the history of this concept: The first period – between the 1900s and 1930s – can be called the period of theoretical reflection on the nature of a New Man. The second period – from the 1930s to the 1950s – can be characterized as the period of the development of norms of Soviet morality. The third period – since the 1960s – is marked by the transition of ethical thought from the ideology propagating socialist morality to moral theory and Marxist scientific ethics. This article argues that the process of forming a new type of man was not a continuous and unilineal process of change throughout the entire period of socialism. On the contrary, this dramatic process can be successfully analyzed with the help of the ethical concept of the New Soviet Man.
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2
A.A. Zinoviev, Homo Sovieticus (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986), 202.
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6
See M. Soboleva, A. Bogdanov und der philosophische Diskurs in Russland zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Zur Geschichte des russischen Positivismus (Hildesheim: Olms-Verlag, 2007), 146–172.
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8
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Socialist Revolution (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1979), 44.
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9
Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1960), 185–186.
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10
Ibid., 190.
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11
Ibid., 205.
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12
Ibid., 200.
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16
Trotsky, “Zadachi kommunisticheskogo vospitaniia (Rech na piatiletnem iubilee Kommunistichskogo Universiteta im. Sverdlova 18 iiunia 1923 g.)”, in Sochineniia, vol. 21 (Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1927).
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17
Kalinin, “Bor’ba za novogo cheloveka,” in Izbrannye proizvedeniia, 2:249.
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20
Ibid., 15.
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21
Richard T. DeGeorge, Soviet Ethics and Morality (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969), 2.
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24
Ibid., 337.
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25
V. Kataev, “Strana nashei dushi,” Literaturnaia gazeta, November 5, 1947; reprinted in Sobranie sochinenii v deviati tomakh, vol. 8 (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1971), 49–60.
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27
Ibid., 313.
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29
E. Dobrenko, Formovka sovetskogo chitatilia. Sotsial’nye i esteticheskia predposylki rezeptsii sovetskoi literatury (St. Petersburg: Akademicheskii proekt, 1997), 130.
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30
Ibid., 131.
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32
Kataev, “Mysli o tvorchestve,” in Sobranie sochinenii v desiati tomakh, 10:523.
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35
Bogdanov, “Sobiranie cheloveka,” in Voprosy sotsializma, 28–45.
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37
See, for example, F.A. Selivanov, Etika. Ocherki (Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta, 1962).
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38
A.F. Shishkin, Osnovy marksistskoi etiki (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Instituta mezhdunarodnykh otnoshenii, 1961), 43.
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40
L.M. Archangel’skii, Lektsii po marksistskoi etike (Sverdlovsk: Izdatel’stvo Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1969); O.G. Drobnitskii, Poniatie morali (Moscow: Nauka, 1974).
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41
O.G. Drobnitskii, “Struktura moral’nogo soznaniia,” Voprosy filosofii, no. 2 (1972): 6; A.I. Titarenko, Struktury nravstvennogo soznaniia (Moscow: Mysl’, 1974); Archangel’skii, Sotsial’no-eticheskie problemy teorii lichnosti (Moscow: Mysl’, 1974); A.A. Guseinov, Sotsial’naia priroda nravsvennosti (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1974); V.A. Bliumkin, Moral’nye kachestva lichnosti (Voronezh: Izdatel’stvo Voronezhskogo universiteta, 1974).
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42
A.A. Ivin, Osnovnaia logika otsenok (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1970).
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43
E.L. Dubko, V.A. Titova, Ideal, spravledlivost’, schastie (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1989).
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44
Archangel’skii, Metodologiia eticheskikh issledovanii (Moscow: Nauka, 1982).
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45
A.I. Titarenko, Kriterii bravstvennogo progressa (Moscow: Mysl’, 1967); V.T. Efimov, Sotsial’nye determinizm i moral’ (Moscow: Vysshaia shkola, 1974); A.I. Titarenko, Marksitskaia etika (Moscow: Politizdat, 1980).
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46
N.V. Rybakova, Moral’nye otnosheniia i ikh struktura (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1974).
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49
V.F. Zybkovets, Prosikhozhdenie nravstvennosti (Moscow: Politizdat, 1974).
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50
V.P. Tugarinov, O tsennostiakh zhizni i kul’tury (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1960); V.P. Tugarinov, Lichnost’ i obshchestvo (Moscow: Mysl’, 1965); V.P. Tugarinov, Teoriia tsennostei v marksizme (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 1968).
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51
Drobnitskii, Mir ozhivshikh predmetov: Problema tsennoszi i marksistskaia filosofiia (Moscow: Politizdat, 1967); idem, Poniatie morali; idem, Problemy nravstvennosti (Moscow: Nauka, 1977) (see also the review by Z. Katvan in Studies in Soviet Thought 25, no. 1 [Jan. 1983]: 72–75).
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54
G.L. Smirnov, Sovetskii chelovek: formirovanie sotsialisticheskogo tipa lichnosti (Moscow: Politizdat, 1971), 123.
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55
V.I. Bakshtanovskii, Prikladnaia etika i upravlenie nravstvennym vospitaniem (Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta, 1980); V.I. Bakshtanovskii, V.T. Ganzhin, Iu. V. Sogomonov, Nravstvennoe vospitanie (sotsiologicheskie i upravlencheskie aspekty) (Tiumen: Izdatel’stvo Tiumenskogo industrial’nogo instituta, 1982); Iu. V. Sogomonov, “Etika i teoriia nravstvennogo vospitaniia,” Voprosy filosofii, no. 2 (1982): 39–51.
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The Concept of the “New Soviet Man” and Its Short History
In: Canadian-American Slavic StudiesSearch for other papers by Maja Soboleva in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The concept of the New Soviet Man remains a topic of on-going scholarly interest for a number of reasons: it reflects a vital part of Russian history, it remains associated with positive and negative connotations that still need to be explored, and it functions as a crossroads for different scholarly perspectives. It remains a topic of interest also because there are still a number of unexplored questions about the concept from the perspective of the history of ideas and philosophy. This article focuses on the reconstruction of the ethical concept of a New Soviet Man over time. It argues that there were three periods in the history of this concept: The first period – between the 1900s and 1930s – can be called the period of theoretical reflection on the nature of a New Man. The second period – from the 1930s to the 1950s – can be characterized as the period of the development of norms of Soviet morality. The third period – since the 1960s – is marked by the transition of ethical thought from the ideology propagating socialist morality to moral theory and Marxist scientific ethics. This article argues that the process of forming a new type of man was not a continuous and unilineal process of change throughout the entire period of socialism. On the contrary, this dramatic process can be successfully analyzed with the help of the ethical concept of the New Soviet Man.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 10562 | 1555 | 89 |
| Full Text Views | 1348 | 159 | 12 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 2113 | 399 | 28 |