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Sovok
Pejorative term related to the Soviet Union From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sovok (Russian: совок) is a pejorative term related to the Soviet Union: the state itself, the mindset and way of life of average Soviet people, and vestiges of the Soviet Union in the psychology of people in modern Russia.[1][2][3]
Etymology
Borenstein explains the catchiness of the term because it phonetically resembles the concept it is applied to. "Soviet", and it is a repurposed existing term "dustpan".[4] Several people are commonly credited with the introduction of the term.[5][4] Lyudmila Kasyanova writes that the direct lowly meaning of the term predefines the negative evaluation of the topic and enhances the pejorative perception of the subject it is referring to.[3]
There are a number of derived words: adjective: "sovkovy" (совковый), "pertaining to 'sovok'"; noun: совковость ('sovkovost', "sovokness") the totality of the traits of a sovok, and the adverb in Russian: совково, romanized: sovkovo, lit. 'in a sovok way'.[6]
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Soviet Union
In its generic meaning the term implies something dysfunctional, commenting on why things are run poorly or why a person behaves badly. Borenstein writes: "When the Soviet Union is called 'sovok', everyone knows what this means: economic deprivation, administrative incompetence, defective consumer technology, an intrusive public culture, bombastic rhetoric that is easily ignored, and widespread hypocrisy."[2]
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Soviet people
Borenstein concisely defines a "sovok" person as "Soviet yokel"[7] and the first two chapters of his book Soviet Self-Hatred are devoted to the analysis of this category of people.[1] In the opinion of Alexander Genis, among the features of a sovok are "a violent thirst for equality, a deaf hatred for anyone else's success, and an indolence that blazes energy".[8]
Modern Russia
Many people think that in modern Russia, despite its transition away from Communism, the negative sovok traits are preserved.[9][10]
See also
Look up sovok in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
References
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