MOSCOW, 29 March 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a monitoring survey about patriotism.

Based on a monitoring survey conducted by VCIOM, the level of patriotism among Russians is as high as never before: today 94% of Russians call themselves patriots, including 62% of dedicated patriots (+10 p.p. over a year), which is an all-time high over the entire period of measurement. Overall, a tendency toward unconditional patriotism has started since autumn 2014, where the share of unconditional patriots exceeded for the first time in a long while the share of “likely patriots” (48% vs. 36%). This might be due to Crimea’s reunification with Russia. The start of the special military operation in 2022 was also marked with an increased number of “unconditional patriots” (+8 p.p. since the latest survey); up to now at least half of Russians consider themselves as unconditional patriots.   

In the course of a March survey, 8 in 10 Russians shared their understanding of what it means to love your home country (82%). Based on the answers, three semantic fields can be singled out. The first one is “Home country is…” (family/home/love for family, care for family; place where you were born, where you live/your city, community; well-being/safety/wealth; children/nature; Earth; country/Russia).  The second one embraces the following: “to love your home country means…” (to be proud; to defend; to contribute into its development; prosperity; to know and to love its history, culture, tradition; to live there/not to leave it; to be a patriot; to act in the interest of the country; to help/to support). The third and rather incomplete semantic field is “to love your home country means to possess certain qualities” (to be decent/responsible; honest and be true to your conscious; true and dedicated).

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 4 March, 2024. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18+ 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. Data were weighted for 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, survey of March 4, 2024:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8044; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0150; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0948.

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.

* The question was as follows: “Do you consider yourself as a Russian patriot?”   

** The question was as follows: “Do you feel you are a Russian patriot, or not?”  

Before 2017, surveys were conducted through household face-to-face interviews (“Express” project); stratified multi-stage quota-based sample; quotas based on socio-demographic parameters, representative of the Russian population aged 18+ by settlement type, sex, gender, education and federal district. Sample size: 1,600 respondents.

* In 2023, up to three answers could be mentioned.