The recent polling by Russia’s Levada Centre showed that the level of support for Stalin hasn’t been as high as it is now for 16 years. A positive response regarding Stalin was given by 46% of respondents. Fully 32% said they respected Stalin; 10% that they felt some sympathy towards him; 4% said he was wonderful.
On the opposite end of the opinion spectrum, 12% felt he was repugnant; 7% indicated they feared him; 2% said they hate him.
Polls have indicated that only Leonid Breshnev and Vladimir Putin as Soviet leaders have gained higher scores in such surveys. As a contrast, over 60% find that both Boriss Jeltsin and Mihhail Gorbachev both were bad leaders. Their eras were accetable to only 16% and 8% of Russian respondents.
Unapposed Putin is still the most popular Russian leader(at least according to polls) with 83% of respondents answering positively. This level has risen over the years with him polling at 51% in 2012 and 70% just last year. Only 5% respond negatively when asked.
At the very least one cannot be faulted for interpreting this high popularity to mean that Russian’s in general accept Kremlin’s domestic propaganda that insists that the annexation of Crimea was legitimate, lawful and the wish of the Crimean people, and that Russia is absolutely not involved in the armed invasion of eastern Ukraine, that it’s an internally initiated and sustained rebellion. (Again, taking the polls at face value.) (Pikemalt Eesti Elu 24. veebruari paberlehest)
