Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Yuriy Lukanov writes that the flap over Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko's alleged recent drunken brawl in Germany is a reminder that Soviet attitudes die hard.

The flap over Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko’s recent drunken brawl in Germany amused Ukrainians instead of making them indignant. [Lutsenko was accused by authorities in Frankfurt of drunk and disorderly behavior on May 4 and Lufthansa Airlines personnel refused to allow him board his scheduled flight to South Korea.] This was a scandal, a fight, something so familiar and common. That’s because many former Soviet citizens love bread and – especially – circuses.

When Ukrainians sit down in front of a TV to watch a political show, they do not expect a clear evaluation of the situation and discussion of serious proposals. They sit down expecting to watch a Punch and Judy show, heroes who are going to fight on live TV.

Unfortunately, fighting is the social norm for society. Seemingly peaceful citizens can start fighting over something that has no direct relation to their everyday livelihood, such as membership in NATO or some such issue. This is because the Soviet person, Homo Soveticus, is still alive and well.

I recall an unpleasant episode from my past. In 1993, I was wheeling a trolley around a supermarket in Montreal, Canada, and choosing my food. Suddenly, in another part of the supermarket, I heard hysterical cries and shouting. Gradually I moved closer to the place whence it came.

The shouts continued for a few more minutes. A red-faced woman around 40 was shouting something at the workers of the supermarket, and they just stood and listened. Then she switched to Russian, and I realized that she came from the former Soviet Union. She obviously could not care less whether the workers of the shop actually understood her.

I had an impression that the fight was needed for the sake of the fight. You might think she was shouting at them for overcharging her, or for stealing something from her, or some other serious offense. If so, you will be disappointed. The woman created the scandal all because a consultant pointed to the wrong coffee beans and not to the brand she wanted to buy. This was hardly a fatal error.

Hypothetically, one can imagine that a dim-witted Canadian citizen can shout in the same manner. But personally I think that there was a psychological factor involved characteristic of Homo Soveticus. In the times of U.S.S.R., shop assistants, suppliers and everyone else involved with distribution and sale of goods were ironically referred to as “respected people.”

The irony was, of course, that few people actually respected them, but a lot depended on them. In the times of total deficit, when the most basic goods were missing from shops, these people became kings and gods. Anyone who would consider it necessary to demand something from a negligent sales assistant in the shop would get an unpleasant response from that very sales assistant.

The Soviet people were taught to treat any sort of management with fear. The word of the boss was law. Not just the boss at work, but any sort of government official, including minor clerks with a tiny bit of power. Retail sector workers were one species of bosses. So this sort of upbringing meant obeying the bosses but, in turn, demeaning those below you – even if there was no reason for it, just for self-satisfaction, for psychological compensation.

And one day the Homo Soveticus managed to go abroad. He realized quickly that sales assistants here are not the same as back home. They are not bosses, but servers. The customer rules, and so the Homo Soveticus demonstrates his real nature.

Soviet persons pour out onto the service personnel everything they cannot do at home because there is nothing to fear abroad. Those in the shop will be fired if they get brutal to the client in response, so these defenseless people can be treated in any way the Soviet person likes.

Homo Soveticus honestly believes that his point of view is the only sound one. He uses Internet forums to say to the opponent that needs to be strangled, that he is a fool, a corrupt man and a Judas. He’s also convinced that the opponent cannot have an alternative opinion that has not been bought and paid for.

And, as a result, the Homo Soveticus believes in the world conspiracy theory. Somewhere in America or Israel, or Brussels or Moscow, there exists the evil powers that influence the whole world. They are the ones who pay for alternative concepts and undermine the faith of the Soviet people in their wonderful past.

And hence, the strange reaction of Soviet people: If the world of evil exists, then one has to fight it with more rigor, twist their evil head as had once been done to the forces of Hitler. That’s why Homo Soveticus is not disturbed by the fact that their Soviet leader, Josef V. Stalin, was a predator even bloodier than the leader of the Third Reich.

The Soviet people divide the world into “ours” and “alien.” The mistakes of their own kind he is ready to ignore, and so all of Stalin’s sins are forgiven.

To be fair, one has to say that Ukraine is gradually overcoming such notions. There are exceptions, such as Lutsenko, who thought he could create a scandal in Germany and come out clean. But in neighboring Russia these sorts of Soviet moods are returning with multiplied strength. An innocent joke about the leader of the country can get a newspaper closed, for example. Or, to quote Stalin himself: “Life is getting better. Life is getting merrier.”


Yuriy Lukanov is a freelance journalist in Kyiv and can be reached at lukanov@ukr.net.