Only half of respondents believe that media, cinema, literature and education programs build a reliable picture of the Great Patriotic War. The number of young respondents who think so is two-thirds.
MOSCOW, June 19, 2012. In anticipation of the Day of Memory and Mourning, June 22, Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing where Russians would take their children to tell them about the heroism of the Soviet people in the Second World War, as well as how reliable the information about this war in mass media, literature, cinema and education programs is today.
According to Russians, to tell kids about the heroism of the Soviet people in the WWII one should visit monuments and memorial complexes dedicated to the Victory in this war (19%). Thirteen percent of people believe that people should visit museums (13%). Respondents also consider that good ways to tell about this war is meeting with veterans (3%), visiting places of military glory (3%), telling about this war (3%), watching movies (1%), as well as visiting tombs of relatives who participated in this war (1%).
As to places and cities, most of people would visit Volgograd (15%), followed by Moscow on the second position (10%), then St.Petersburg on the third place. This is followed by Brest (4%), Khatyn (1%) and Belarus in general (1%), Kurskaya Duga (Kursk Salient) and Prokhorovskoe pole (Prokhorov Field) (3%), Novorossiysk (1%), Belgorod and diorama of the battle (1%), Sevastopol (1%), and Berlin (1%).
According to most of Russians, mass media, cinema, literature and education programs build the right picture of the war (60%). Those who think so are mainly Russians younger than 35 (66-67%), residents of big cities (70%). The share of those how believe that the image of the war heroes and the Soviet Union is being distorted and described negatively is twice smaller (30%): mainly elderly respondents (37%) and residents of middle cities (41%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on April 28-29, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
If you wanted to tell your children and grandchildren about the heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War (World War II), where would you take them to? (open-ended question, any number of answers) | |
Memorial complexes, monuments dedicated to the WWII (Victory Park, Victory Square, Alley of Glory, Eternal Flame, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) | 19 |
Museums | 13 |
Volgograd (Stalingrad), Mamaev Kurgan | 15 |
Saint-Petersburg, Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery | 7 |
Moscow, Red Square, Poklonnaya Gora | 10 |
Military Parade | 5 |
Brest, Brest fortress | 4 |
Meetings with veterans | 3 |
Places of military glory | 3 |
Reading stories about the Great Patriotic War, about how the victory was achieved | 3 |
Kurskaya Duga, Prokhorovskoe Pole | 3 |
Belarus | 1 |
Libraries | 1 |
Novorossiysk | 1 |
Hero cities | 1 |
Diorama in Belgorod | 1 |
Sevastopol | 1 |
Khatyn | 1 |
Movies about the war | 1 |
Tomb of relatives | 1 |
Berlin | 1 |
Nowhere | 1 |
Other | 4 |
Hard to tell | 19 |
Do you think that mass media, cinema, literature and school programs build a reliable picture of the WWII? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60 and above |
Yes, I think they build a reliable picture of the war which was partially hidden from us during the Soviet times | 60 | 66 | 67 | 62 | 56 | 51 |
No, I think that they distort the real image of the heroes and the USSR stressing and exaggerating the scale and importance of the negative details | 30 | 20 | 23 | 28 | 35 | 37 |
Other | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Hard to tell | 8 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Do you think that mass media, cinema, literature and school programs build a reliable picture of the WWII? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||||
| Total respondents | Moscow and St.Petersburg | Million cities | More than 500 thousand | 100 - 500 thousand | Less than 100 thousand | Rural area |
Yes, I think they build a reliable picture of the war which was partially hidden from us during the Soviet times | 60 | 63 | 54 | 70 | 42 | 65 | 65 |
No, I think that they distort the real image of the heroes and the USSR stressing and exaggerating the scale and importance of the negative details | 30 | 32 | 33 | 22 | 41 | 25 | 28 |
Other | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | |
Hard to tell | 8 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 6 |
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!