More than 60 Percent of Russians Consider Their Country Unjust, New Survey Finds

Russians Consider Their Country Unjust, New Survey Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 18 – According to a new Public Opinion Foundation poll, 61 percent of Russians say that their country has an unjust social system and 53 percent add that they believe the system in the last decades of Soviet power was more just than the one they live in now (https://media.fom.ru/fom-bd/d37spr2020.pdf).

            At the same time, 42 percent say they believe the state of social justice in Europe is worse than in Russia, and 27 percent say that the system in Russia today is more just than was that in the 1970s and 1980s.  But while a majority says things have gotten better in the last three or four years, 25 percent say they believe the situation has deteriorated over that period.

            Thirty percent of the sample says pensioners suffer from injustice the most while 10 percent say working class Russians do. Smaller shares pointed to the difficulties young people, invalids, large families, single mothers, the middle class, and children in general now suffer as evidence of injustice.

            Asked what Russians should do about this, 14 percent said they should display greater social initiative, and eight percent said that they must behave more justly and live according to existing laws.

            The POF is closely tied to the Kremlin and so did not explore whether Russians believe that the current regime is responsible for the rise of injustice or whether they think that the government must change course, but with three out of five saying Russia is now an unjust society, many must certainly feel that way.