MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Some 91% of Russians polled see themselves as patriots, with 52% of respondents describing themselves as absolute patriots, while 5% indicated that they do not consider themselves patriots at all, according to a survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).
"Nine in ten Russians say they are patriots (91%), one in two Russians (52%) say they are absolute patriots. Throughout the entire monitoring period, the metric [of those calling themselves patriots] has not fallen below 80%, with the highest figured registered in 2018 at 92%. Some 5% of Russians surveyed do not consider themselves patriots at all," the pollsters said.
According to the poll, almost half of the respondents (48%) believe that being a patriot means working and acting for the benefit of your country. Nearly 38% of Russians surveyed believe that patriotism means defending one’s country from any attacks and accusations.
Some 32% of respondents said that being a patriot is "telling the truth about one’s country, no matter how painful it is," with the same percentage of those polled saying that being a patriot is believing yourself to be a part of your country. "The option of ‘believing that your country is better than other countries’ was chosen by 18% of those surveyed," the statement said.
According to the pollsters, 16% of Russians surveyed associate the expression "to love one’s Motherland" with love for family. Some 15% of respondents associate the expression with love for one’s place of birth, or home town, neighborhood or province, while one in ten associated love of one’s homeland with love for people and mutual assistance.
VCIOM published the results of the survey conducted on March 28 among 1,600 respondents aged over 18. The margin of error does not exceed 2.5% at a confidence level of 95%.