Fewer than 20 Percent of Petersburgers in Open Online Poll Say Would Choose to Have Been Born in Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 28 – St. Petersburg’s Gorod 812 portal conducted an open online poll of its visitors as to what country they would prefer to have been born in. 2200 people took part. 45 percent named Western countries, just under 20 percent said Russia, but significantly, the non-existent country of Ingermanland attracted more votes (441) than did Russia (370).

            Moreover, another non-existent country, the Republic of Petersburg, received 146 votes, making the total for regionalist projects in Russia’s northern capital nearly a quarter of those taking part far greater than for Russia – 587 to 441 (gorod-812.ru/tolko-20-protsentov-hoteli-byi-roditsya-v-nyineshney-rossii/).

            Commenting on the results, the editors of Gorod 812 helpfully provided a definition of Ingermanland: “a territory in the North-West of the Russian Federation which never has had its own statehood if you don’t count North Ingria, which existed for a brief time during the Civil War.”

            The poll is not based on a representative sample; and consequently, those with particular agendas are certain to have taken part in it to boost their standing in larger numbers than their totals in the population.  But at the very least, these results show that regionalist ideas are circulating in St. Petersburg.

            The Tallinn-based regionalist site, Region.Expert, suggested that the results were “clear evidence of the popularity of regionalist ideas in St. Petersburg and the territories surrounding it which still bear the ridiculous name, Leningrad Oblast,” a place few expect to find a hotbed of such ideas (region.expert/inger-vote/).

            It is of course possible, Region.Expert adds, that those who named Ingermanland or the Republic of Petersburg as their preferred birthplaces were only echoing the words of the well-known punk musician Vadim Kurylyov that “it’s time to get out of this country, but together with our own city!’”

            In fact, there has been a significant regionalist movement in North-West Russia for a decade, one large enough and active enough to attract the attention of the Russian authorities. (For background, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-new-aspirant-to-be-fourth-baltic.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/regionalist-movements-now-under-kremlin.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/06/regionalism-threatens-russia-today-way.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/05/by-attacking-free-ingria-leader-moscow.html, and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/10/window-on-eurasia-ingermanland-is-ready.html.)