‘Wild 1990s’ have Ceased to Frighten Russians, Kremlin Polling Shows

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 1 – Over the last 20 years, Russians have changed their attitude to the 1990s, Sergey Leonov and Ivan Chuprov say, citing “closed” Kremlin polls which have found that younger people don’t remember them and are indifferent, and older ones often remember them with nostalgia “as the time of their youth.”

            As a result, the two URA journalist say their sources tell them, today’s 90^th birthday of Boris Yeltsin “should become a watershed” in which the powers will change their rhetoric” about a decade they have hitherto used to contrast what they have achieved with what was the case earlier (ura.news/articles/1036281858).

            At his December press conference, Vladimir Putin continued to use this older method; but then the Kremlin ordered surveys, the two journalists say; and the results are forcing the Kremlin quickly to rethink how effective talking about “the wild 1990s” is for the current regime.

            According to one of their sources, “the technology of comparison isn’t working anymore: then was bad but now is good. The millennials do not know about life in those times, and adults have begun to be nostalgic about their own youth.” Another says that the Kremlin has already drawn conclusions and will mark this Yeltsin anniversary in a more positive way.

            What the Kremlin reportedly has found continues a trend that the Levada Center has documented. Five years ago, it found that 53 percent of Russians had a negative view of Yeltsin, now only 36 percent do; and over the same period, the share having positive feelings about the first Russian president rose from seven percent to 14 percent.

            Denis Volkov, the deputy director of the polling agency, says that “over the last 20 years, the share of those who find it difficult to give an assessment or are neutral toward Yeltsin has risen. A generation has appeared for whom the 1990s were not a strong influence, and even those who now are negative about Yeltsin in focus groups talk about his good sides.”

            These include “freedom and opportunity.” As a result, the sociologist says, “the contrast with the 1990s does not work as well as a result of the extended stagnation of the last few years.” It may still work for those employed by the government but not by the many who aren’t, and so the regime has to rethink its approach.

            Simply talking about stability won’t be enough, Dmitry Zhuravlyev, head of the Institute of Regional Problems says, because stability is for the rising generation “an anti-value” given that it has not brought improvement but rather deterioration. That means, he and other analysts say, that “the wild 1990s” look better. At least there was a chance for change.

            Moscow political analyst Georgy Satarov, who earlier worked for Yeltsin, says that when people are unhappy with their present situation, they will either look back or look forward. If the government doesn’t provide them with an image of the future, they will choose one from the past – and it may not be the past the government prefers.

            Those who do remember the 1990s recognize that many things were better then than they are today, and, in drawing that conclusion, they may reach a far more negative assessment of their current situation, especially if the Putin regime continues to fail to present a convincing image of a positive future.