MOSCOW, June 20, 2008 Facing the Day of Mourning and Commemoration Russian Public Opinion ResearchCenter (VCIOM) presents information on the extent to which Russians are informed of the events that took place during the Second World War.

The smallest share of Russians make a mistake when they need to answer the question of who started the Second World War. The overwhelming majority of respondents (88%) stated that it was Germany who played the aggressor-role in this case (versus 4% who named the USSR and 1% who thought that the war was started by Great Britain, the USA or France). This question caused a little bit more difficulty for the residents of the Ural and Far East federal districts (10% in the Urals and 13% in Far East FD respectively suppose that the war was started by the USSR).

Russians experienced the greatest difficulties answering the questions dealing with the major events that marked the Great Patriotic War. Only 34% of respondents know that the Battle of Stalingrad fight began in 1942, 26% of respondents could "remember" that it was in 1943, and lastly 34% could not answer the question at all.

Only 35% of Russians have recollected, that the Siege of Leningrad was raised in 1944 whereas 26% assumed that it had happened a year earlier (in 1943), and one third of respondents (33%) could not provide any answer to this question. 

No more than  half of respondents (49%) knew that Supreme Commander-in-chief during the Second World War was Joseph Stalin. 31% of respondents mentioned Georgiy Zhukov, 2% named someone else, and 18% could not provide an answer to this question.

The younger the respondents are, the worse they know the history of the great war. Thus, one third (28%) of respondents in the group of 18 to 24 years knew that the battle of Stalingrad began in 1942 (versus 34 % in the age group 35 to 59 years and 38% in the group of 60 years and older). A little over a third (39%) of respondents aged 18 to 24 years knew that Joseph Stalin was the Supreme Commander-in-chief (versus half of respondents in the age of 35 years and older: 52% in the group of 35 to 59 years, 51% in the group of 60 years and older). Russians falling into the age group of 25-34 years permanently got into the “middle” group. Knowing a little bit more than youth about the major events of the Second World War, they nevertheless (just as the 18-24-aged respondents did) find it harder to provide any answer to questions concerning the events of that era than other groups did.

The initiative All-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on June 14-15, 2008. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.