MOSCOW, October 21, 2009. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data whether Russians are interested in Russian history, what opinion towards review and revision of historical events they have, and whether they think it is acceptable to have several history textbooks at the same time (instead of one). 

Over the recent years Russians` interest in history has increased: the number of those who are fond of history in varying degree has grown from 39 to 62%.  Most of them are respondents with high level of education (72%) and residents of middle-sized cities (68%). At the same time, the proportion of those who demonstrate no interest in Russian history has decreased from 54 to 38%. Most of them are Russians with low level of education (54%), and residents of small cities and rural area (40-41%).

According to a majority of Russians, the evaluation of historical events should be done only once, and the revision of history is not acceptable (60%).  Most of those who have such an opinion are Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (68%) and elderly citizens (66%). Nevertheless, almost every third consider that the process of writhing history is endless and each generation reinterprets history in terms of its knowledge (31%). Such position is typical for inhabitants of middle-sized cities (39%) and respondents younger than 34 (38%).

Sixty-one percent of Russians are confident that "national histories" are not acceptable, and historical truth is one and for all. Most of respondents who hold this opinion are metropolitan residents (79%), and CPRF and Fair Russia supporters (66% for each).  On the contrary, 31% of respondents think that historical events can be interpreted in a different way by different nations - they are basically residents of middle-sized cities (39%) and LDPR adherents (33%).

History is a science and instrument of cognition (66%). Only 26% of respondents think that history does not exist outside of politics and political struggle. The former position is held by the Fair Russia party supporters (73%) and those who are interested in history a lot (77%). They are opposed by LDPR adherents (33%) and those who have never been interested in history (34%).

Russians have an unambiguous opinion towards school history textbooks: 79% think that the textbook should be single for all schools. Most of those who think so are elderly citizens (86%) and southerners (93%). Those who support the idea of a number of school textbooks to be chosen from are in the minority (15%); they are basically 18-24-yar-old Russians (21%), residents of the Urals and Siberia (23% for each).

Those in favor of a single textbook for all schools are mainly respondents who are interested in Russian history (84%). Those Russians who have never been interested in history are basically in favor of a number of school textbooks (18%).

 The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on October 3-4, 2009. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 140 sampling points in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of errordoes not exceed 3.4 %.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or www.wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!