MOSCOW, 27 September 2022. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey commissioned by the “Many peoples – One motherland” project highlighting Russian cultural symbols and how well Russians are aware of the Russia’s contribution to the world's’ culture and science.

Russia’s symbols in figures

Russia is rich in great events and outstanding personalities from the past and present; however Russians find it easier to name significant persons from the past than from the present. Twenty-five percent of respondents failed to recall any famous compatriots of the past; the number of those who could not recall any famous person of today is twice as high (56%).

Alexander Pushkin, Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin are top three famous personalities who lived in the past, according to Russians (21%, 20%, 17% respectively). They are followed, with a wide gap, by Mikhail Lomonosov and Vladimir Lenin (8% each). Catherine the Great along with cultural figures (F.Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Tchaiovsky) and great generals (A.Suvorov, G.Zhukov, 6% each) hold the sixth position.

The rating of symbols of the modern Russia is headed by the Russian president Vladimir Putin (28%), followed by Sergei Shoygu on the second place (7%). The third ranking is held by the minister of foreign affairs Sergei Lavrov (5%). Russians consider that the modern Russia is basically represented by public figures. 

Knowledge is power

Despite a great variety of famous personalities from the past and present, Russians show low levels of awareness regarding Russia’s contribution to the world civilization. Two-thirds of Russians are aware that Alexander Popov is the inventor of radio (63%). The same percentage of respondents knows who wrote Crime and Punishment: Fyodor Dostoevsky was mentioned by 63%.  The share of respondents who know who wrote the music for the Nutcracker ballet is lowest: half of respondents mentioned Pyotr Tchaikovsky (52%).

Overall, every third respondent gave the correct answers to all three questions (32%).  Awareness levels are shaped by generational differences, level of education and urbanization rate: the percentage of correct responses is higher among respondents aged 45 and older (39-42% vs. 14% of those aged 18-24), respondents with higher and incomplete higher education diplomas (45%), as well as inhabitants of Moscow and St Petersburg (55% vs. 18% among rural area inhabitants).

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 10-11 September, 2022, and commissioned by the “Many peoples - One Motherland” nationwide project. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews using a 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.

September 10, 2022 survey key effectiveness indicators:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8195; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0239; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1498.

September 11, 2022 survey key effectiveness indicators:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8338; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0249; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1623.

Calculations based on the corporate standard

* 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: 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.