Russian Public Opinion on Soviet Union

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#3
Vremya Novostei
December 7, 2001
DECADE OF REGRET
Most Russians still wish for the Soviet Union
Author: Oleg Volkov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE LARGEST POLLING AGENCIES HAVE DONE SOME SURVEYS AND POLLS ON THE EVE OF THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BREAK-UP OF THE SOVIET UNION. YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MORE INDIFFERENT TOWARD THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE SOVIET STATE. A GROWING NUMBER OF RUSSIAN CITIZENS ARE CERTAIN THAT THE COLLAPSE WAS INEVITABLE.

The largest polling agencies have done some surveys and polls on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Belovezhskaya Puscha accords, to test the assumption that most Russians still wish for the return of the Soviet Union. The existence of this majority has remained virtually unchanged throughout the decade. However, pollsters now say that certain changes are about to take place - or are taking place already - in how Russian citizens appraise the events of December 1991. This is indicated by a poll done by the ROMIR agency. ROMIR analyst Alexander Muzafarov attributes all of it to the gradual appearance of a new generation. Elderly people who consider the Soviet Union an integral part of their lives are noticeably more critical of the Belovezhskaya Puscha accords. Young people are more indifferent toward the disintegration of the Soviet state. They attribute it to objective reasons (general collapse of the communist ideology, rather than the ambitions of Mikhail Gorbachev or Boris Yeltsin) and view the Soviet Union as part of history. Hence the growing number of Russian citizens who are certain that the collapse was inevitable. The ranks of Russian citizens who long for the lost empire are diminishing. Only 55% of respondents say they would prefer life before the reforms. This figure was 64% two years ago.

Pollsters consider that nostalgia for the Soviet Union is fading away, and this process is irreversible, although it is fairly slow. While they more or less approve the idea of a union, Russian citizens do not want money wasted on it. According to the Public Opinion Foundation, only 22% of respondents believe that restoration of the Soviet Union is possible.

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