VTsIOM: citizens considered Mikhail Gorbachev the main anti-hero of the USSR

“The VTsIOM poll was conducted on November 24 among 1.6 thousand Russians aged 18 and over by telephone interviews. For the sample, the maximum error size with a probability of 95% does not exceed 2.5%, VTsIOM notes", - the RBK report says.

According to the VTsIOM poll conducted within the framework of the joint project with RBC “30 years without the USSR”, the last general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev (20%), during whose reign the USSR collapsed... In second place among the antiheroes of the era were three people at once: Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, as well as the head of the NKVD Lavrenty Beria (11%). It is noteworthy that among those interviewed aged 18 to 24, Stalin more often aroused antipathy. In third place among antiheroes, according to the survey, is Boris Yeltsin (9%). This is followed by Leonid Brezhnev (5%), Nikolay Yezhov (4%) and Vladimir Lenin (4%).

40% of Russians could not name a single antihero of the Soviet era, which political scientist Alexey Makarkin associates with "a steady decline in interest in history, especially among young people".

In the ranking of heroes of the Soviet era, Yuri Gagarin is by far the leader, with 41% in the poll. In second place is "Victory Marshal" Georgy Zhukov, who gained 22%. “He is not only a war hero, he was also actively opposed to Stalin in the 1990s: the point of view was advanced that it was possible to win not thanks to, but in spite of the actions of the generalissimo, and Zhukov was the main people's commander”, - Makarkin said. In third place in the ranking of heroes of the USSR among the respondents was Joseph Stalin (20%). According to Elena Mikhailova, advisor to the VTsIOM general director, although the Stalinist repressions and the harshness of the regime left a negative mark on the collective memory of the people, they are balanced by "the positive experience of the past (first of all, by the victory in the Great Patriotic War)".

Next in the list of heroes of the era are Leonid Brezhnev (9%), Sergey Korolev (8%), Vladimir Lenin (7%), Alexey Maresyev (4%) and Andrei Sakharov (4%).

This summer, in another poll, Russians recognized Stalin as the most outstanding historical figure in the history of all times and peoples. He has retained the lead in this ranking since 2012.

* The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center