Some Thoughts on the Soviet Family

Abstract

The extreme over-ideologisation of all forms of social life because of the totalitarian regime and utter destruction of civil society created a unique historical situation in the USSR. People’s private lives, organised within the family, began to perform functions that civil society should have performed. In terms of human evolution this period in the history of people inhabiting the Soviet Union may only be compared with primitive society when role taboos and prescriptions, first formulated in people’s daily lives, enabled them to survive. The shift from universal human values to class ideology, which caused fierce conflict over the decades, left no room for social structures which could form in people feelings of human worth and respect for individuals irrespective of social origin. The concept of civic duty similarly changed so that it became normal to denounce anyone who thought differently, especially those who held different beliefs. The same happened in respect of the law. Laws were interpreted freely to fit the interests of the ruling elite. The family actually became the only institution in which a person could express ideas and ways of resistance to society’s spiritual vacuum.