Imperial greatness became tiresome: the citizens of Russia want peace and personal prosperity

The results of a regular poll by sociologists of the Levada Center (an organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) showed that the number of Russians who believe that Russia should be great and everyone should be afraid of it is at a historical minimum. And at the historical maximum - the number of Russians who believe that it is better, if not so great, but the standard of living in the country will be high.

Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov linked these figures with the election race:

“I told you that United Russia with its Shoigu and Lavrov got into milk. See what the Levada Center writes:

“Two-thirds (66%) of Russians would like to see Russia primarily“ a country with a high standard of living, albeit not one of the most powerful countries in the world. ” A third of Russians (32%) want to see the country "a great power respected and feared by other countries." The share of those who want to see Russia primarily as a country with a high standard of living has been gradually growing since 2015 and has reached its maximum in the entire history of observations. The share of those who want to see the country first of all as a “great power”, in turn, has reached a minimum”.

In such matters, the dynamics are more important than absolute indicators, and this dynamics for United Russia is completely disappointing. However, the absolute figures too.

It was necessary to put Mishustin at the head of the list..."

Political analyst Andrey Pesotsky saw in these figures the demand of citizens for a welfare state, strikingly different from the one in which they have the misfortune to live today:

“Despite the defamation of the USSR, which has been going on for three decades, citizens surprisingly in August 2021 demonstrated the highest level of sympathy for the Soviet economic model - 62%. Maximum since 1992. The answer to these figures should be sought in the history of the coronavirus pandemic. The market economy cannot offer any effective recipes for such shock events - it turned out, for example, that in the fight against the pandemic, an extensive public medicine is needed, and not a network of private clinics. Similarly, with employment and social protection - there is no hope that small businesses will provide people with jobs. Tens of millions of people have to rely on the state. Interestingly, 49% of Russians would also prefer the Soviet political system rather than Western democracy, which testifies to even deeper sympathies for a centralized, low-corruption state.

On the other hand, the Levada poll showed something else - 66% would like to see Russia "a country with a high standard of living, albeit not one of the most powerful countries in the world," and not "a great power respected and feared by other countries." And here again the record numbers. Apparently, the fatigue of citizens from the prevalence of the foreign policy agenda in the official media is reflected - people believe that talking about the “pernicious West” distracts people from social problems. It turns out that there is a demand for a Soviet welfare state, but the foreign policy confrontation, which was also an attribute of the USSR, does not arouse optimism and support. We can say that people want a social democracy like the Scandinavian one, with all the conventions and imprecision of opinion polls.

How much will the modern state hear the demand of the society? There will be no talk of a real struggle against the oligarchy, the elite will not clean up itself, but certain elements of the planned economy have already become familiar. For example, direct payments to the population, announced by the president - either to pensioners, or to parents with minor children, or to servicemen, have come into use, although this has not been practiced for another five or ten years. In the context of the fight against covid and the elimination of the consequences of the pandemic for the economy (or the fight against a new wave of infection), the economy will include more and more command-and-control elements, but to certain limits - to the extent that it does not fall into the throat of the financial interests of influential people..."

Journalist Pavel Pryanikov is also sure that ideologically Russia is an absolutely leftist country, and he is surprised that the Chekists manage to stay in power for so long:

“The latest research by Levada confirms once again what I have been writing for the last five years, based mainly on the research of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences - the majority of Russians want either Soviet socialism or Western democracy. In the latter case, many choose Social Democracy as a variant of this Western democracy. Those. Russia is an absolutely left country, at the level of 60-70% of preferences (in different variations of the left - from left paternalism to Eurosocialism).

The current way of Russia, which outside of ideology can be designated as liberal-KGB, and ideologically - neoconism (right-wing hybrid of neoliberalism and conservatism) is not liked by almost any Russian. The maximum score in different age strata is 22%. It should be understood that this is the real rating of the authorities - no more than 20%.

And we must pay tribute to the professionalism of liberal Chekism: with such an anti-rating, he has managed to own the country for three decades. This is the real art of all his cogs - from his propaganda to the secret police..."