Share of Russians who Regularly Tell Anecdotes has Risen 50 Percent Since Putin Came to Power with Most of that Rise Coming in the Last Several Years, Levada Center Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 8 – Because sometimes a cigar is only a cigar, Russians regularly used anecdotes in Soviet times to allow them to comment on what was taking place in their world; but in the 1990s, when being explicit was less of a problem, they told fewer than in the past. But in the most recent years of Putin’s rule, they are heading back to the Soviet pattern.

            According to surveys by the independent Levada polling agency, the share of Russians who say they regularly tell anecdotes or repeat lines from popular films or movies was 12 percent in 2000, fell to  eight to ten percent in the mid-teens, but now has risen to 22 percent (levada.ru/2025/07/08/ispolzovanie-slenga-i-krylatyh-fraz-anekdotov-i-maternyh-vyrazhenij/).

             Nearly half both in 2000 and now say they sometimes tell such stories with those who live in big cities and have more education are more likely to tell them than are those who live in rural areas and have less schooling, patterns also typical of the Soviet past, according to researchers.

            Aleksandr Arkhipova, a Moscow anthropologist, has pointed out that political anecdotes about Putin and his regime are becoming more numerous because they fill exactly the same role that stories about Stalin and his system did in Soviet times: they allow Russians to express their feelings with less risk of getting into trouble (mbk.media/sences/anekdot-krivoe-zerkalo-epoxi/).