#3
Izvestia
December 4, 2001
LOVE FOR THE MOTHERLAND IS SOMETHING INTIMATE
Only 3% of Russians think patriotism is important
Author: Georgy Ilyuchev
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
ACCORDING TO THE LATEST OPINION POLL CONDUCTED BY THE ALL-RUSSIAN PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH CENTER, RUSSIANS ARE WORRIED BY PERSONAL SECURITY MORE THAN BY ANYTHING ELSE.
Patriotism for the majority is not what politicians think it is
Respondents were offered a list of 25 words expressing human values and told to choose three of them in order of importance. The results are fairly revealing.
Notions like "security", "peace", and "family" polled over 30%. "Justice" got 18% and is the fifth on the scale (despite the claim of professional patriots that the feeling is typical of everyone).
The notions of "security", "law", and "order" do not mean anything integral for Russians. The latter two polled 17% and 15% respectively. On the other hand, 33% appeared to be concerned with personal security.
"Patriotism" and "religion" were mentioned as values of high priority by 3%, and "solidarity" by 1%. (Only 9% of Zyuganov's followers chose "patriotism" as the top priority.)
At the same time, 29% of respondents are confident that patriotism does not mean attitude but means a heroic deed.
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