Window on Eurasia: Few Conservatives But Many Soviet Traditionalists Exist in Russia, Moscow Sociologist Says

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, August 1 – Despite Vladimir Putin’s support for what he describes as “conservative” values and the willingness of some in the West to take that at face value, a leading Moscow sociologist says there are few conservatives in Russia today and that those who say they are conservatives in fact want to restore Soviet values and arrangements.

 

            At a recent roundtable at the Gorbachev Foundation, Vladimir Petukhov, a specialist on public consciousness at the Moscow Institute of Sociology, said that he was very skeptical about the presence of what some call “conservatism” in Russia, Kremlin claims notwithstanding (isras.ru/files/File/publ/Petuhov_gorbachev_fond.pdf; summarized at ttolk.ru/?p=21206).

 

            In his remarks which have now been published, Petukhov said that it is important to distinguish between “doctrinal” views and the perceptions of the population about them.  He gave as an example “democracy.” Twenty years ago, Russians defined it in terms of rights and freedoms; now they define it in terms of economic growth and equal treatment under the law.

 

            Moreover, while many people support this or that action in words, far fewer support the same things when they are told that they might have to tighten their belts to achieve them, Petukhov said. And in addition, increasingly, Russians are telling pollsters not what they think but what they think the bosses want to hear.

 

            “The division of society into a conservative majority,” albeit an “inert” one, and “an active liberal and opposition minority” is “an absolute invention,” the sociologist says. There is no empirical support for that position. Both “liberals” and “conservatives” in Russia are “not very significant minorities.”

 

            The majority of the population, “the enormous unstructured mass” of about 60 percent “does not have any ideological or political preferences.” Instead, Petukhov said, it is oriented more toward consumerism” and is little concerned about anything that does not touch its standard of living directly.

 

            The only division in this mass which should be mentioned is between those who are seeking to achieve something for themselves by active work and those, a much larger group, who “are oriented toward the status quo” and simply don’t want to have anything rock the boat. The active ones now form 35 percent of the total, and the more passive 30 percent.

 

            “There are very few authentic conservatives in Russia,” the scholar added. Those who call themselves that or who are identified by others with that term are in fact “more traditionalists (and Soviet traditionalists by the way) and not conservatives.” They support not conservative values as such but the restoration of a statist approach and great power status.

 

            Putin’s promotion of Russia as a great power is supported across the political spectrum, Petukhov said, and it has “in a certain sense destroyed the opposition, especially the nationalist and leftist.”  But this may not be for long, if Russia reacts as it did to the 2008 Russian war with Georgia.

 

            That conflict generated “the same outburst of hurrah patriotic and great power attitudes,” but these dissipated relatively quickly after only seven or eight months. That is because except during crises, Russians focus above all on the situation inside the country rather than on foreign policy. Even if a crisis continues, they will begin to think about the costs and be less supportive.

 

            “In fact,” the sociologist said, “the apologists of conservatism are privatizing all-human values” in ways that the supporters of “any ideological trend” can, he said. “But somehow it is considered that if someone talks about the importance of the family and work, that makes him a conservative.” In fact, such an individual is “a Russian traditionalist with a ‘Soviet’ accent.”

 

            In support of that view, Petukhov cited a poll he had conducted in April 2014. At that time, Russians were asked what values they thought were most important. More than 75 percent talked about honor and love of work, but only eight percent mentioned religion and only 14 percent mentioned patriotism.