Alexei Levinson

Alexei Levinson is sociologist and senior researcher at the Levada Center, Russia's leading polling organisation, Moscow

After the plane crash: Russian attitudes to Katyn

The NKVD’s mass execution in 1940 of Polish officers in Katyn Forest has complicated the often tense relations between Russia and Poland. But the plane crash on 10 April 2010 brought the countries closer together. Russia’s Levada Center has recently carried out a survey into Russian attitudes to P

By Alexei Levinson

/ 28 Apr 2010

Russia’s people: what is a just war?

Russia’s people do not bow to government opinion on the subject of war, a revealing survey of public attitudes by the Levada Center shows. The only ‘just war’ is one fought in defence of home and country, like the World War II. By this token, Russia’s wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya were unjust w

By Alexei Levinson

/ 13 Apr 2010

Uses and abuses of Stalin’s image

The Levada Center has been monitoring Russian attitudes to Stalin for years. Alexei Levinson, reviewing changing attitudes to this iconic figure following the Center's latest survey, finds that he remains popular, and that people are strangely forgiving of his crimes. But there is some resistance

By Alexei Levinson

/ 25 Mar 2010

So what do Russia’s people think?

In the first of his regular monthly reports for odRussia, Alexei Levinson of Russia’s prestigious Levada Centre offers a round-up of Russian public opinion at the start of 2010. Even when the economic crisis lead people to judge their government, he notes, approval of Prime Minister Putin remained

By Alexei Levinson

/ 3 Mar 2010

Russian public opinion and the Georgia war

The anniversary of an event is a time to remember. In the case of the war that began in the Caucasus this time last year, on 8 August, we risk

By Alexei Levinson

/ 14 Aug 2009