More
than half of all Russian citizens believe the collapse of the Soviet
Union was a bad thing that could have been avoided, while even more
people say they would welcome the restoration of the socialist system
and the Soviet state.
According to
the latest poll conducted by the independent research agency Levada
Center, the proportion of those who confessed to negative feelings
over the collapse of the USSR is currently 56 percent, with 28
percent claiming their sentiments are entirely positive and 16
percent deeming the question too complex to give an unambiguous
answer.
Fifty-one
percent of respondents told researchers that in their opinion the
collapse of the USSR could have been avoided, while 33 percent said
they considered it inevitable. Some 17 percent said they couldn’t
answer.
When
researchers asked the public if they would like the Soviet Union to
be restored, 58 percent replied in the affirmative, with 14 percent
saying they considered such project quite realistic at the moment.
Forty-four percent view the restoration of the USSR as unfeasible,
even though preferable. Thirty-one percent said they would not be
happy if events took such a turn, while 10 percent could not give a
simple answer to the question.
In the press
release dedicated to the poll, Levada specialists said the level of
nostalgia for the USSR among Russians is now the highest in five
years, but it is still far from the maximum of 75 percent registered
in 2000.
In April
2005, President Vladimir Putin called the USSR’s collapse “the
major geopolitical disaster of the [last] century” in a public
address to the Russian parliament. This quote was circulated by the
international mass media that claimed that it revealed the Kremlin’s
alleged plans to return to socialism. However, the Russian leader has
repeatedly rejected these allegations, explaining that he meant the
negative effect of radical and quick changes on the lives of everyday
people.
In 2015,
Putin was interviewed for a documentary and directly stated that
Russia had no plans to bring back the USSR, but complained that no
one wanted to believe in this. He went on to accuse European
governments of confusing modern Russia with its Communist-run
predecessor and of sacrificing the interests of common people in
post-Soviet republics like Ukraine for the sake of preventing an
imaginary threat.
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