homo sovieticus

homo sovieticus

Translingual

Alternative forms

• Homo sovieticus, Homo Sovieticus, homo Sovieticus

Etymology

Contemporary Latin for ”Soviet man”, a calque of colloquial Russian сове́тский челове́к (sovétskij čelovék) modelled on taxonomic names like Homo sapiens.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): [ˈhɔ.moː sɔ.wiˈɛ.t̪ɪ.kʊs]

Noun

homo sovieticus m (plural homines sovietici)

1. (usually derogatory) A person moulded by living in the Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc, variously characterised as passively conformist, apathetic, multinational etc.
   • 2017 September 5, Michael Gentile and Dmytro Potekhin, “Beyond Homo Sovieticus: Soviet identity as a weapon of mass deconstruction”, in New Eastern Europe‎ (in English):

     Homines Sovietici represent, to put it differently, the human left-overs of socialism. An alternative non-ideological interpretation of homines sovietici is that they are individuals who responded in different ways to the rules and norms of the system which they were forced to navigate, just like in any other society. […]

Translations

Typical Soviet national

Estonian: Nõukogude inimene Finnish: homo sovieticus, neuvostoihminen (fi) German: Sowjetmensch m Russian: сове́тский челове́к m (sovétskij čelovék), сово́к (ru) m (sovók) Swedish: homo sovieticus

See also

• sovok