Neo-Sovietism is the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

–style of policy decisions in some

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

, as well as a

political movement A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

of reviving the Soviet Union in the modern world or to reviving specific aspects of Soviet life based on the

nostalgia for the Soviet Union The social phenomenon of nostalgia for the era of the Soviet Union (russian: links=no, Ностальгия по СССР, Nostal'giya po SSSR), can include its politics, its society, its culture, its superpower status, or simply its a ...

. Some commentators have said that current

Russian President The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

holds many neo-Soviet views, especially concerning law and order and military strategic defense.

Neo-Sovietism in Russian state policies

According to

Pamela Druckerman Pamela Druckerman is an American-French writer and journalist living in Paris, France. In fall 2013, she became a contributing opinion writer for ''The New York Times International Edition''. Education and early life Pamela Druckerman grew up ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', an element of neo-Sovietism is that "the government manages civil society, political life and the media". According to

Matthew Kaminski Matthew Kaminski (born November 11, 1971) is an American journalist working as the editor-in-chief of ''Politico.'' He is also the founding editor of '' Politico Europe'', which launched on April 21, 2015. He was previously a foreign correspondent ...

of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', it includes efforts by Putin to express the glory of the Soviet Union in order to generate support for a "revived Great Russian power in the future" by bringing back memories of various Russian accomplishments that legitimatized Soviet dominance, including the Soviet victory against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Kaminski continues on by saying that neo-Sovietism "offers up Russian

jingoism Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national int ...

stripped bare of Marxist internationalist pretenses" and uses it to scare Russia's neighbours and to generate Russian patriotism and

anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...

. Andrew Meier of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' in 2008 listed three points that laid out neo-Sovietism and how modern Russia resembles the Soviet Union: *Russia was a land of

doublespeak Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs and "servicing the target" for bombing), in which case it is ...

. Meier claims that Russia has deliberately distorted words and facts on various subjects, particularly regarding the

Russo-Georgian War The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...

at the time by claiming that the United States instigated the conflict and that Georgia was committing

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...

South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...

. *Russia was willing to enhance its power by any means possible, including harsh repression of its own citizens with examples being

Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...

and the Mothers of Beslan. *Russia remains a land in which "fear of the state—and its suffocating reach—prevails" by introducing numerous laws that limit free expression and promote

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

Organizations

* All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1995) * All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1991) *

Armenian Communist Party The Armenian Communist Party ( hy, Հայաստանի կոմունիստական կուսակցություն, ՀԿԿ; ''Hayastani Komunistakan Kusaktsutyun'', HKK) is a communist party in Armenia. It considers itself the successor to the Armenia ...

* Azerbaijan United Communist Party *

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; russian: Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации; КПРФ, Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii; KPRF) is a left-wing nationalist and ...

* Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1992) * Communist Party of the Soviet Union (2001) *

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

Essence of Time Essence of Time (russian: Суть времени, Sut' vremeni) is a Russian political movement founded and led by political scientist, philosopher, and theater director Sergei Kurginyan. Principles The movement's ideology is a mixture of ...

Russian Communist Workers' Party of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Russian Communist Workers' Party of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (RCWP-CPSU; russian: Российская коммунистическая рабочая партия в составе Коммунистической партии � ...

Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Union of Communist Parties – Communist Party of the Soviet Union (UCP–CPSU), abbr. СКП–КПСС is a federation of communist parties in the post-Soviet states founded in 1993. Gennady Zyuganov has been the organisation's chairman sinc ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neo-Sovietism Nostalgia for the Soviet Union Political movements Political theories Post-Soviet states

Neo-Sovietism in Russian state policies

Organizations

See also

References