December 04, 2022

War Support Falling


War Support Falling
War refugees in Irpin, Ukraine. March 2022. Palinchak.

The news site Meduza got its hands on a secret, internal Kremlin poll (conducted by the Federal Security Service and intended for government use only, not for public disclosure). According to the publication, the poll found that 55% of Russians favor negotiations with Ukraine, and only 25% are in favor of continuing the war.

"These figures are broadly consistent with the results of an October survey by the Levada Center," Meduza reported. In that poll, 57% of respondents favored peace talks, and 27% favored continued hostilities.

This is a significant shift. This summer, just 30% of Russians were in favor of peace talks with Ukraine.

Meduza said that, according to its two highly-placed sources, these trending poll numbers are leading the Kremlin to limit future public polls on Russians' attitude toward the war.

“Anything is possible now, it’s better not to do it,” one source close to the Kremlin said. "It is better not to report these dynamics [changing attitudes to the war]," said another.

The primary driver of changing attitudes, said Dennis Volkov, of independent pollster Levada, in a previous interview with Meduza, was the September mobilization:

"It is the unwillingness of citizens to personally participate in hostilities. Their support [of fighting] remains high, but people's desire to personally participate in this is quite small."

The previously passive public stance toward a war that was far away has been replaced by a sense of more immediate and personal danger. According to sociologist Grigory Yudin, this fall [after mobilization] Russians faced "the destruction of everyday life and a sense of danger." Negotiations are now also more appealing, he said, because the population has begun to sense "a loss of faith in victory, due to battlefield defeats and the absence of a convincing theory of how exactly Russia will win."

None of this, however, is predictive of mass anti-war demonstrations. Even so, the Kremlin is planning to tread cautiously.

For now, Meduza's Kremlin sources say, "it is better not to heat up the situation and not to annoy people again." The sources said that state and pro-government media outlets are already receiving recommendations "not to peddle the topic of war," and to focus on "a more positive agenda."

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955