MOSCOW, 22 February 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey on how Russians perceive February 23, what they plan to give and expect to receive as a gift for this holiday.

February 23 is…

Since mid-2000s the public perception of the holiday has undergone changes: its military understanding has strengthened. Whereas in 2005-2006 most of Russians perceived February 23 as a holiday for all the Russian men (46% in 2005; 42% in 2006), today respondents tend to perceive this day as a holiday for all the Russian military servicemen (41%). One in three respondents say this is a holiday of all the men (31%). A further 16% call it the Red Army birthday; every tenth respondent perceive it as an ordinary day off (10%).

Female view of male gifts

Defender of the Fatherland Day is all about concerts, exhibitions, military movies and, of course, gifts. This year Russian women are going to cook a dinner for this holiday (40%). Four years ago this way to celebrate the holiday was not popular and was mentioned far less often (4% in 2019); the list of gifts was headed by perfume and beauty products (35%). Today they hold the second place (20%). Another popular present this year is souvenirs (pens, notepads, purses, etc.) (15%; 29% in 2019). Other popular presents which were not mentioned before are car accessories (11%) and tools (10%). Ten percent of women think that the best gift is money (10%).

Nine percent of women would give clothes and shoes as a gift this year (16% in 2019). Female respondents also mentioned games/toys, tickets to concerts/ theatres/dinner at a restaurant and sports equipment/gym membership (7%, each group). Over the four years the presents that motivate to do sports have become much more popular, whereas foods (sweets, specialties, etc.) and spirits have become a less common present (5% vs. 13% in 2019). Eleven percent of the Russian women are not going to give any gift to men for February 23.

What do men want?

It’s not only the range of presents that have changed over the four years but also male expectations. Whereas in 2019 the most desired gift was a tourist trip (22%), today most of men would like to get the attention of their family first (33%); four years ago only 6% wanted the same thing. The share of those who would like to receive the attention of the state has increased (1%; vs. 2% in 2019).

Demanding men have more serious queries – 14% of them would like to get an apartment or a house for February 23. There are also those who would like to get a tourist package (10%) or a car (9%), although the share of such persons has almost halved since 2019 (10% vs. 22% in 2019; 9% vs. 17% in 2019). Items that were not previously mentioned are tools (8% vs. 0% in 2019) and fishing gear (7% vs. 1% in 2019). About the same percentage of respondents mentioned money (7%). Fourteen percent of men would not like to get any gift.

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 10 February, 2023. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted according to social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, February 10, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8267; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0209; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0832. Calculations are based on the corporate standard: https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/ * CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents. ** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not. ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.