Third of Russians count national history from Kievan Rus, its Christianization – poll

Natalya Mihailova | 22 March 2017
Moscow, March 22, Interfax - A quarter of Russians count national history from the time of Kievan Rus (26% vs. 19% in 2003), while 12% believe that Russia's history started with the Christianization of Kievan Rus, the Levada Center public opinion service told Interfax.
Third of Russians count national history from Kievan Rus, its Christianization – poll

Another 7% maintain that the formation of Russian principalities marked the beginning of the country, 5% count national history from Peter the Great, and 3% use the October 1917 Revolution as the reference point.

Two percent each believe that Russia’s history started with the formation of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the establishment of the sovereign Russian Federation in 1991, or the election of Vladimir Putin for president, and one percent of those polled believe the adoption of the Declaration of the Russian Federation’s Sovereignty in 1990 was the event with which Russia began.

Some 36% opined that national history had been evolving “since time immemorial, since the beginning of time” when they were asked which date, epoch or event was at the outset of Russia’s history.

Asked which periods of national history were of particular interest to them, some 38% of the respondents mentioned the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, 31% referred to the Peter the Great epoch (the 18th century), and 28% to Ancient Rus (the 8th to the 17th centuries).

The rest were interested in the late 19th century – early 20th century (18%), the Brezhnev epoch of the 1970s – 1980s (17%), and the 19th century (14%). Another 15% percent of the 1,600 respondents polled in 137 populated localities in 48 regions on March 2-6 said they did not care about any period of Russia’s past.

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.