Poll shows almost half of Russians believe October Revolution reflected majority will

At the same time, 92% of Russians consider a new revolution in Russia as unacceptable

OSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. Forty-five percent of Russians believe that the October Revolution expressed the will of the majority, up nine percentage points since 1990, according to a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center which TASS has at its disposal. That said, 92% of Russians consider a new revolution in Russia as unacceptable.

Asked about whether the October Revolution expressed the will of the majority of the nations that lived in the Russian Empire, “to date, 45% of respondents agree, while 43% disagree (compared to 36% and 37% in 1990, respectively),” the poll suggests.

In 2017, 12% of Russians had no opinion on the issue, down from 27% in 1990. At the same time, 42% of respondents failed to name the goals pursued by the revolution’s supporters. The most popular answers were “a coup d’etat, a change in the regime” (19%), “power to the people, factories to the workers, lands to the peasants” (13%) and “a change in peoples’ lives for the better” (10%).

Twenty-seven percent would have preferred to ‘sit out’ the tumultuous times of 1917 and 16% would have gone abroad. Twenty-eight percent of respondents would have supported the Bolsheviks, the share of such answers being higher among Russians aged over 60: 42% compared to 21% among young people aged 18 to 24.

The survey by the state-run pollster was conducted in 2016-2017. On December 3-4, 2016, 1,600 adult Russians participated in the household surveys. In 2005-2016, household opinion polls were also held. On October 5, 2017, 1,800 adult Russians took part in a telephone survey. The margin of sampling error is no more than 2.5% to 3.5% with a 95% probability.

Published in tass.com