Elderly Russians tend to think that the Soviet Union would have not collapsed without Gorbachev. Young Russians believe that the USSR would have collapsed anyway.

MOSCOW, March 2, 2011. In anticipation of the 80th anniversary of Mikhail S.Gorbachev Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data about the attitudes of Russians on the role Gorbachev played in the collapse of the USSR.

There is no common opinion among Russians about the role of Gorbachev in the USSR`s collapse. Some say that his role was crucial (42%). Others believe that the USSR would have collapsed anyway due to objective reasons, even if there were any other politician instead of Gorbachev (37%).

Young Russians tend to think that the USSR would have collapsed without Gorbachev`s participation (41%); elderly respondents say he played the main role in this process (57%).

Those who think the Gorbachev`s role was crucial are supporters of CPRF party (70%), respodnents with low level of income (49%) and residents of middle cities (49%)

Those who think that the USSR would have collapsed with any other leader are basically LDPR party adherents (42%), Russians with high level of income (44%), Muscovites ad St.Petersburgians (49%).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on 19-20 February, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of errordoes not exceed 3.4%.

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