Sovok

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.¹²³

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.⁵⁴ 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

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

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

Many people think that in modern Russia, despite its transition away from Communism, the negative sovok traits are preserved.⁹¹⁰