Today many Russians respect Stalin. His role in the Russian history is ambiguously assessed by Russians, as Russians believe that he did both good and bad things.
MOSCOW, March 5, 2013. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning how Russians regard Stalin today, as well as how they assess his role in the Russian history.
The attitudes of Russians towards Stalin have not changed much. Most of them still feel positive emotions: 27% express respect for him, 6% - likings; 3% - admiration. Negative attitudes are observed rarer: 14% do not like him; 6% hold abomination for him; 5% express fear. The share of those who express indifference is 30%.
Those who respect Stalin are elderly respondents (36%). Most of young Russians feel no emotions (39%).
Year by year more Russians recognize that what Stalin did was half good, half bad (45%, in 2007 – 37%). The remainder are equally divided in their opinion into two groups: those who say that Stalin played a positive role (23%), and those who say he played a negative role (24%).
Those who are confident that the role of Stalin was positive are supporters of CPRF (38%). They are opposed by the adherents of non-parliament parties (30%). Those who say that his role was controversial are supporters of A Just Russia (50%) and United Russia (49 %) parties.
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on February 16-17, 2013. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
What is your general attitude towards Stalin? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||
| 2001 | 2009 | 2013 |
Admiration | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Respect | 27 | 26 | 27 |
Liking | 7 | 8 | 6 |
Indifference | 13 | 28 | 30 |
Disliking, irritation | 18 | 13 | 14 |
Fear | 16 | 6 | 5 |
Disgust, hatred | 10 | 5 | 6 |
Hard to tell | 5 | 11 | 8 |
What is your general attitude towards Stalin? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60 and over |
Admiration | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Respect | 27 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 25 | 36 |
Liking | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
Indifference | 30 | 39 | 33 | 31 | 29 | 23 |
Disliking, irritation | 14 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 12 |
Fear | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
Disgust, hatred | 6 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
Hard to tell | 8 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Assessing the role of Stalin during his rule, do you think he did more good things or bad things to Russia? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||
| 2007 | January 2011 | April 2011 | 2013 |
More good | 15 | 23 | 26 | 23 |
More bad | 33 | 27 | 24 | 24 |
Equally | 37 | 38 | 39 | 45 |
Hard to tell | 14 | 13 | 12 | 8 |
Assessing the role of Stalin during his rule, do you think he did more good things or bad things to Russia? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||
| Total respondents | Supporters of A Just Russia party | Supporters of LDPR (liberal democratic party) | Supporters of CPRF (communist party) | Supporters of United Russia party | Supporters of other parties | I would not take part in the voting | hard to express party preferences |
More good | 23 | 22 | 27 | 38 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 20 |
More bad | 24 | 25 | 24 | 18 | 24 | 30 | 24 | 30 |
Equally | 45 | 50 | 41 | 40 | 49 | 44 | 43 | 38 |
Hard to tell | 8 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 12 |
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!