Mary Baldwin College, Staunton VA 24401
by Prof. Gordon L. Bowen, Ph.D.
gbowen@mbc.edu
This webpage reports the findings of various public opinion studies in Russia in the later 1990s. Some of the main conclusions that emerge from reading these include:
A Fall 1999 study found that Russians were pessimistic about their predicament:
-72% see their economy to be in “very bad” shape; 78% see the country headed in the “wrong” direction.
-At a personal level, 72% report payment of pensions or wages to them to be late; 69% say situation has worsened in 1999. About one third say they have not enough money for food.
-Large majorities say situation today is worse than under socialism re: housing (65%), medical care (86%), finding good jobs (91%), crime (96%).
-71% agree that “last two years are hardest in my life;” 86% think “a majority of Russian officials are corrupt,” 88% think “a small handful of rich...are ruling Russia.”
Many Russians blame the U.S.
-87% said the U.S. was “taking advantage” of a weakened Russia
-96% regarded NATO's airwar against Yugoslavia as a “crime”
-While 35% said they “liked” him, only 9% saw Pres. Clinton as a “real friend of Russia.”
-Only 9% saw the U.S. as a “friend;” 28% saw the U.S. as an “enemy.”
Many Russians display affectionate yearnings for non-democratic figures in Russian History. When asked opinions of former leaders:
Who Russians Like.......... and Dislike
Sakharov...........68%.............10%
Solzhenitsyn.......50%.............20%
Lenin...............57%.............28%
Stalin...............33%.............52%
Brezhnev...........43%.............44%
Gorbachev.........10%.............82%
Zyuganov..........39%.............54%
Peter the Great.....86%...............3%
Many Russians continue to be Anti-Semitic:
- Whereas 60% of Russians think “Jews have too much power in world business” only 16% of Americans think that is true in U.S.
- Whereas 42% of Russians think “Jews don't care what happens to non-Jews,” in the US only 9% believe this.
- In the US, anti-semitism has declined since 1964. In Russia, it has risen.
-All social groups display high rates of anti-semitism in Russia: 39% of college graduates there scored high on the scale of anti-semitism; in the U.S. 5% do; in the U.S., 18% of those who only went to High School are anti-semitic; in Russia, 47% of these people are.
-Older Russians, pro-Communist Russians, and very alienated Russians have higher rates of anti-semitism.
sources:
Anti-Defamation League, “Highlights from a Sept. 1999 ADL Survey on Anti-Semitism and Societal Attitudes in Russia,” (NY: ADL, Sept. 1999).
see: http://www.adl.org