“Soft Power” In Mythology Of Soviet Civilization: Soviet Intelligentsia’S Value System Transformation

Abstract

The Soviet system of values, which until a certain point in time was shared by a large part of society, was eventually discredited and replaced by the Western one. This happened not so much due to some kind of gross manipulation but due to the hidden work of the mechanisms of "soft power" that managed to change the mind first of the Soviet elite and then of the Soviet intelligentsia. Those actors, who promoted the Western system of values, struck selected targets of the topics essential to a Soviet man, gradually transforming the attitudinal matrices of the widest sections of the population. The first target of such a transformation (after the elite) was the intelligentsia. Through the so-called "opinion leaders", messages on the excesses of the Soviet system and the advantages of Western social organization were methodically hammered into their minds. The ideas of disarmament, transition to a market economy and liquidation of kolkhozes (collective farms), which encompassed the Soviet intelligentsia with the help of the "soft power" of the West, when implemented, did not lead to economic prosperity and the establishment of friendly relations with neighboring countries. In this study, based on an analysis of materials from the Ogoniok magazine, the most popular in the circles of the intelligentsia, we have tried to answer the following question: With the help of what mechanisms it became possible to change the attitude of Soviet citizens to certain basic institutions of Soviet society?