About 50% of Ukrainians nostalgic for Soviet times

RIA Novosti ^ | February 27 ,2006 | Vladimir Suprun

[Timedrifter]

About 50% of Ukrainians nostalgic for Soviet times - poll
27/02/2006 15:16
KIEV, February 27 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Suprun) - About 50% of Ukrainians want to live back in the Soviet Union, a national pollster said Monday.

According to the survey conducted by the Razumkov center of economic and political research, 20.4% of respondents said they wanted the Soviet Union and the socialist system to be restored, and 28.3% said they wanted this as well, but believed it was impossible under the present conditions.

A total of 51.3% of respondents were against a return to Soviet times.
More than 57% of the Ukrainian respondents said Russian should be made the official or state language in certain regions, whereas 35% were against this.

According to the survey, 42.2% of respondents said relations with Russia were a priority, 12% - with former Soviet republics, 25.4% - with the European Union and only 1.5% - with the United States.

Meanwhile, only 16% said they were in favor of Ukraine's possible accession to NATO, whereas 61.4% said they did not support the idea.

The nationwide poll, based on interviews with 2,009 adults, was conducted prior to the 15th anniversary of the referendum on the preservation of the Soviet Union. The margin of error did not exceed 2%.

On March 17, 1991, more than 70% of Ukrainians voted for preserving the U.S.S.R.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"There are probably few who remember the purges, and no one who rememebers the famine."

Don't kid yourself. There are plenty who still do. They also remember how Stalin dynamited so many of their churches, including the church of St. Mikhail in Kiev. Mikhail is the patron saint of Kiev and Ukraine.

Russians are not the favorite flavor of the month over there.