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Neo-Sovietism

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Belarusian Honor Guard carrying the national flags of Belarus and the Soviet Union, as well as the Soviet victory banner, in Minsk, 2019.

Neo-Sovietism, sometimes known as neo-Bolshevism, is the Soviet Union–style of policy decisions in some post-Soviet states, as well as a political movement of reviving the Soviet Union in the modern world or reviving specific aspects of Soviet life based on the nostalgia for the Soviet Union.[1][2] Some commentators have said that current Russian President Vladimir Putin holds many neo-Soviet views, especially concerning law and order and military strategic defense.[3]

Neo-Sovietism in Russian state policies

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2021 Moscow Victory Day Parade. Military parades and Soviet military symbolism play an important role in the 9 May celebrations across Russia.

According to Pamela Druckerman of The New York Times, an element of neo-Sovietism is that "the government manages civil society, political life and the media".[4]

According to Matthew Kaminski of The Wall Street Journal, 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. Kaminski continues on by saying that neo-Sovietism "offers up Russian jingoism stripped bare of Marxist internationalist pretenses" and uses it to scare Russia's neighbours and to generate Russian patriotism and anti-Americanism.[5]

Andrew Meier of the Los Angeles Times in 2008 listed three points that laid out neo-Sovietism and how modern Russia resembles the Soviet Union:[6]

  • Russia was a land of doublespeak. Meier claims that Russia has deliberately distorted words and facts on various subjects, particularly regarding the Russo-Georgian War at the time by claiming that the United States instigated the conflict and that Georgia was committing genocide in South Ossetia.
  • Russia was willing to enhance its power by any means possible, including harsh repression of its own citizens with examples being Mikhail Khodorkovsky 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.

Neo-Sovietism in Belarusian state policies

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In 2021, Jim Heintz of the Associated Press described Belarus as a neo-Soviet state due to the authoritarian nature of Alexander Lukashenko's government and its largely state-controlled economy.[7]

According to Belarusian journalist Franak Viačorka, Belarus “clung to the traditions, symbols, and narratives of the USSR with more enthusiasm than any other former Soviet republic.”[8] Viačorka asserts that the Belarusian government has deliberately retained many of "the specific statecraft and economic practices of the Communist era."[8] Examples cited by Viačorka include Komsomol-style political youth organizations to obligatory university studies of the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany.[8]

A study by the Trans European Policy Studies Association described the Belarusian government's economic policies as neo-Soviet, due to the country's lack of well-defined private property rights and continued domination of the industrial sector by state-owned enterprises inherited from the Soviet Union.[9]

In his book Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship, political scientist Andrew Wilson described the Belarusian state ideology as neo-Soviet.[10] Wilson noted that many authoritarian institutions from the Soviet era were preserved in Belarus, including the local branch of the State Security Committee (KGB).[10] Like its Soviet predecessor, the Belarusian government also retained strong control over mass media and the press, and even produced similar state propaganda.[10]

Separatist republics in eastern Ukraine

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Andrew Kramer of the New York Times claimed that the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic established by Russian separatist forces in Ukraine were neo-Soviet states.[11] Kramer observed that the separatist legislatures were modeled after the Supreme Soviet, local industry was nationalized and seized by the separatist governments, and Soviet era agricultural collectives were revived.[11] He also pointed out that some of the separatist political leaders, such as Boris Litvinov, were former dedicated members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and remained sympathetic towards socialist ideology.[11]

Neo-Soviet organizations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Heathershaw, John (2009). Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order. Central Asian Studies. London; New York: Routledge. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-1-134-01418-7.
  2. ^ Shevtsova, Lilia (2007). Russia—Lost in Transition: The Yeltsin and Putin Legacies. Translated by Tait, Arch. Carnegie Endowment. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-87003-236-3.
  3. ^ Slade, Gavin (Spring 2005). "Deconstructing the Millennium Manifesto: The Yeltsin–Putin Transition and the Rebirth of Ideology". Vestnik: The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies. 1 (4): 74–92. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007.
  4. ^ Druckerman, Pamela (8 May 2014). "The Russians Love Their Children, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  5. ^ Kaminski, Matthew (26 March 2014). "Putin's Neo-Soviet Men". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  6. ^ Meier, Andrew (29 August 2008). "Is the Soviet Union back?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  7. ^ Heintz, Jim (14 November 2021). "'Europe's last dictator' raises the stakes with the West". Associated Press. New York. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  8. ^ a b c Viačorka, Franak (26 August 2020). "Belarus is a reminder that the USSR is still collapsing". Atlantic Council. Washington DC. Archived from the original on 29 May 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  9. ^ Hartwell, Christopher; Bornukova, Kateryna; Kruk, Dzmitry; Zoller-Rydzek, Benedikt (March 2022). "The Economic Reconstruction of Belarus: Next Steps after a Democratic Transition" (PDF). Brussells: Trans European Policy Studies Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Wilson, Andrew (2012). Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship. Philadelphia: Yale University Press. pp. 270–271. ISBN 978-0300134353.
  11. ^ a b c Kramer, Andrew (14 October 2014). "Rebels in Eastern Ukraine Dream of Reviving Soviet Heyday". New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2024.
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