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.

[Supernatural]

Yes, bring back the good old days when the Soviets murdered everyone.

[soccer_maniac]

who paid for that research?

[The Old Hoosier]

By 1991, they weren't murdering nearly enough of them to keep the system going. There are probably few who remember the purges, and no one who rememebers the famine.

[BenLurkin]

I'm curious about the age breakdown on this.

I'm guessing that a lot of this "nostalgia" is among people too young to remember what it was really like.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

How about polling the youth ages 18-35?

I'll bet the results would change.

[Red Badger]

Easy to say when you have lots of toilet paper...........

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Some peoples have a tradition of oppression and torture.

Even when freedom is handed to them on a silver platter, they prefer the "good old days" of living like dogs.

Just look at Iraq.

[RetiredArmy]

The National Socialist Democratic People's Party of Amerika. Formerly known as the Democrat Party.

[theFIRMbss]

>Yes, bring back the good old days when the Soviets murdered everyone

Flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C. Didn't get to bed last night On the way the paper bag was on my knee Man I had a dreadful flight I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you are boy Back in the U.S.S.R. (Yeah) Been away so long I hardly knew the place Gee, it's good to be back home Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case Honey disconnect the phone I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you are boy Back in the U.S. Back in the U.S. Back in the U.S.S.R. Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out They leave the West behind And Moscow girls make me sing and shout That Georgia's always on my mind Aw come on! Ho yeah! Ho yeah! Ho ho yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you are boys Back in the U.S.S.R. Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out They leave the West behind And Moscow girls make me sing and shout That Georgia's always on my mind Oh, show me around your snow-peaked mountains way down south Take me to your daddy's farm Let me hear your balalaika's ringing out Come and keep your comrade warm I'm back in the U.S.S.R. Hey you don't know how lucky you are boys Back in the U.S.S.R. Oh let me tell you, honey Hey, I'm back! I'm back in the U.S.S.R. Yes, I'm free! Yeah, back in the U.S.S.R.

[TheForceOfOne]

Those who died in the "Death Zone" of the "Berlin Wall" were unavailable for comment.

[Mike Darancette]

Maybe they could have people drive around in black cars randomly knocking people's doors in the early morning hours. Long lines could be reintroduced at food and clothing stores, even simulating random outages of bread and meat.

[Mount Athos]

The proportion of people voting openly communist is 4 times greater in Ukraine than Russia. About 20% communist in Ukraine -- so the 20% nostalgic doesn't surprise me. The big number of people who say they want it but it isn't possible, bringing total over 50%, that surprises me.

Then again even the USA has a really huge number of people who want free health care and think it is a right... That could turn us far more socialist than we are today, very quickly. Entitlement mentality is a cancer.

[Galveston Grl]

This happens when intellectuals who are sympathic to communism, fail to write and talk about the reality of the past. People - as in the masses - often go with the emotions of the loudest slogans and most prevalent propaganda. Look at South America...

Our own country is filled with people who sat by cheering on Clinton as he loved up Castro. We have millions who love communism and millions more who don't know any better.
Our intellectuals and many business leaders are sympathic to communism and have failed to document and teach the reality of communism. They have also avoided teaching America's founding ideology.

[Think free or die]

" I'm guessing that a lot of this "nostalgia" is among people too young to remember what it was really like."

My family is in the Czech Republic. My experience has been that the people who are most nostalgic for the "good old days" of socialism are the older folks. Those who were old enough to remember the freedom before 1948 were generally happy to have it return. People under the age of ~35 were also usually happy about it, because they were young enough to rebuild their lives, start businesses, travel, etc. The people I found to be most resistant to the changes freedom brought were ~50-65 years old. They saw rising prices, rising rents, and loss stability at an age when they had trouble starting over.

In the Ukraine, the older folks don't have a democratic tradition from before WWII to return to, so I'd expect nostalgia to be commonplace among retirees. There is comfort in predictability, even if pickings are slim and freedoms are few.

[Supernatural]

Reading "The Gulag Archipelago" shows what the Soviets were all about. The author claims 66 million people were killed by their own government by one method or another from the time of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 until 1970. Methods of killing included mass starvation.

[The Old Hoosier]

I don't think Solzhenitsin ever gave such a high number -- although if you include the socialism-induced famines, you might get a higher number than that normally accepted.

GULAG is a great read, btw., every conservative should read it.

[1903A3]

So what
About 50% American's are nostalgic for soviet time
Their name is DEMOCRAT

[Cyclopean Squid]

I don't think it's a great read--I do think it is a great book, however.

[Galveston Grl]

Thanks, that is true. I did not mean to imply that nothing has been written as much as nothing has been actually taught on par with what we have taught about Nazi Germany. We need museums for Communism's victims and we need education materials and requirements.