The St.Valentine`s Day has become a true holiday only for young persons. Most of Russians still have very conservative attitudes towards gender relations.

MOSCOW, February 14, 2014. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the following questions: whether Russians treat St. Valentine`s Day as a holiday; how they describe this holiday; what love relations they regard as normal.

Only 42% of Russians consider St. Valentine`s Day as a holiday; over the recent ten years the share of such respondents has decreased (from 51% in 2005). More than half of Russians (54%) do not regard this day as a holiday.  The elder the respondents are, the less they treat this day as holiday. Only 24% of elderly respondents the St.Valentine`s Day is considered to be a holiday (vs. 71% of young Russians). Those who like this holiday are active Internet users (60%), and people with higher education diploma (49%).

Russians have ambiguous attitudes towards St.Valentine`s Day. Every second Russian (51%) describe St.Valentine`s Day as a warm holiday when you can tell about your feeling to your beloved ones and give them some joy. Forty-one percent of Russians consider this holiday as a commercial invention to gain profit from selling souvenirs. Those who like this holiday are young Russians aged 18 - 24 (75%), who live in Moscow or St. Petersburg (61%) and use the Internet (65%).

Most of Russians consider that the co-workers` romance is a normal thing (64%). One-quarter of Russians (26%) do not like it but can tolerate it. Only 7% of respondents are confident that workplace romance is unacceptable. Interestingly, when it comes to love relationships between subordinate and superior, many respondents have the opposite opinion: 42% do not approve that but they can tolerate that; 14% believe that such relationships must be persecuted. Only 39% consider such relationship normal.

Every second respondent (51%) believe that it is natural for a man to have romance with a women who is younger than him; whereas only every third Russian approves of love relationships between a woman and a man who is younger than she is (34%). Relationship between an older man and a young woman is unacceptable for 8% of Russians; the reverse situation is condemned by 16% of Russians (16%).

Infidelity can be tolerated by 40% of respondents. Ten percent of Russians consider the relationships between a single person and a married person normal. Forty-five percent of Russians condemn adultery. Those who are point-blank about that are elderly respondents (58%), and those who have elementary level of education (56%).

Same-sex relationships are unacceptable for the majority of Russians, no matter if these relationships are between women  (78%) or men (82%). Polyamory is treated in the same way: 80% of respondents consider the love relationships between three persons absolutely unacceptable; only 13% of Russians tolerate this type of relationships.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on February 8-9, 2014. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

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!