Sovok of the Week

About “Sovok of the Week”On May Day 2003, while drinking beer and reminiscing of the Motherland, three homesick sovoks in southeast Michigan put their heads together to build a website that would address a hitherto neglected cul-de-sac on the information superhighway. There are thousands of websites offering Russian mail-order brides, duty-free caviar, and other nostalgic bric-a-brac. But not a single website devoted to Soviet Russia’s most significant and enduring creation — the Sovok. The founders Andre, Boris, and Vadim started this enterprise in hopes of explaining the concept to the world while filling the page space with cheesy banners in hopes of making a few roubles.But who is a sovok? The concept is complicated.

A 1992 article in one of Russia’s newspapers, Nezavisimaya gazeta, described a sovok as a person with “a crazed thirst for equality, a deep hatred for the success of others, and a flourishing laziness.” As true sovoks, the founders of this site could not have said it better themselves — so we simply lifted the definition without permission and pasted it here.

Take some time and explore this rich online homage to sovokishness. Make sure you take the self-test, look at pics, and ask Aunt Klava and Uncle Igor a question. If you ever wondered why so many Russians act the way they do, read these pages as a manual documenting their idiosyncrasies.

Here is an updated Introduction:

Just in case you were duped into visiting this site when you searched for “yung russian girl to merry”, here is a short list of the essential Sovok qualities:Sovok: cheap,always mourning for the good old times, most certainly coming from the former/present communist countries (but not necessarily since Sovok is a state of mind rather than a nationality), loud, obnoxious, fond of dispensing advice, pretentious, in love with causes (either Communist, Saving the Whales, Organic Foods Only, etc.), loves to engage in questionable enterprises with a predictable outcome, etc.One does not have to have ALL these qualities at once to be a Sovok. But if one does, we nominate him/her the Official Sovok of the Week. So, read, enjoy, and hope that one day we may nominate you!!

What is this site all about?

We are a group of rather recent immigrants from the former USSR (Aunt Klava, Uncle Igor, Boris, and Vadim) and we are keeping a sort of a weblog which documents our travails in a foreign country. Additionally, we are posting our observations and reactions to news reports from all over the world. At the same time, we are all self-proclaimed “Sovoks” (see above) and, therefore, we are trying to tell the world about our life-style. One of the ways we do it is through pointing out Sovok traits in various groups of population. We nominate a “Sovok of the Week” each week (on Firdays). We try to post at least two posts a week. Our staff used to be more numerous in the past but we fired several of our contributors for various misdemeanors (bounced checks, slander, etc.) in a true Stalinist way.

How do we pay for all of this?

We are running a very small shop on the Internet where we sell stuff with Soviet-period posters on them. We get a VERY small commission from each sale. Every once in a while, a grateful reader would send us a donation which is always welcome.