Mikhail Heller’s recent book, Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man, forcefully argues that an understanding of the Soviet Union requires an appreciation that, from the inception of the Soviet State in 1917, not only the means chosen were different from those in the West, but also the ideological ends for which the power of government has been applied are different. Nationalization of the means of production by Lenin and the Bolsheviks was a tool for a specific purpose: to control all aspects of the social and economic environment so as to create the conditions necessary to make over human nature and produce a new Soviet or Communist Man.
[Richard M. Ebeling, Book Review, FEE< December 1988]
Author(s): Mikhail Geller (Heller)
Publisher: Collins Harvill
Year: 1988
Language: English
Pages: 336
Introduction 7
I THE GOAL 23
1 The Beginning ofthe Experiment 25
2 Sketch for a Portrait 31
3 Homo Sovieticus Sum 43
II THE VECTORS 53
1 Infantilization 55
2 The Nationalization of Time 66
Planification 67
3 Ideologization: the Triad of the Grand Inquisitor 77
The Miracle 78
The Secret 86
The Authority 91
4 Totalitarianization 104
III THE INSTRUMENTS 115
1 Fear 117
2 Labour 138
3 Corruption 168
4 Education 177
The School 177
The Family 199
The Mythology 225
5 Culture 245
6 Language 266
Conclusion 298
Notes 303
Index 323
