Documents / FOIA release
This JPRS report, compiled in 1991 and carried in CIA records, translates an article by Aleksandr Demidov of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Sociology Institute, published in Sotsiologicheskiye Issledovaniya in October 1990. It draws on 18 months of polls of Moscow residents to analyze public opinion during the 1989 and 1990 election campaigns, covering trust in the CPSU, voter preferences, and dissatisfaction with how the elections were organized. It notes a growing mysticism, including belief in flying saucers, but has no UFO content beyond that.
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Document 6 of 10 determine voter choice. The chances of independent candidates declined significantly. 31. The satisfaction of the Muscovites with the election results of the people's deputies was substantially lower than in the spring of 1989. Around 45 percent of those questioned stated that they were rather satisfied and almost the same number, some 40 percent, said that they were rather dissatisfied with the voting results. What was the reason for this? In our view, there were several of them. In the first place, the overall dissatisfaction with the organization of the election campaign and this dissatisfaction to one degree or another was expressed by a predominant majority of our respondents and was also partially transferred to the voting results. Secondly, the polarizing of the political forces naturally led to a polarizing of evaluations with some candidates being victors and others not. Thirdly, while in 1989, the very opportunity of a real choice caused satisfaction, now this was not enough. Demands also increased on both the candidates and the election system. Finally, and fourthly, there was also a general strengthening of critical attitudes in society. For this reason, the assessment of the voting results seems natural to us and not so low. 32. In one way or another the current political structure in society is transitional, unformed and rapidly changing. The processes in mass conscience correspond to such a situation. In concluding an analysis of the political situation based on the results of studying the public opinion of Muscovites over the last 18 months, we would like to point out the basic aspects of these processes. 33. The activating of public conscience is continuing. In recent months, this has assumed a qualitatively different character. While initially one observed basically a rise in the activeness of the various strata and groups in the public and the involvement of people in politics, at present there is not merely the politicizing of conscience but also the mass defining of one's positions and the polarizing of political views. 34. The present period in the development of society is also characterized by a radicalizing of the attitudes of people. At present, public opinion, as a rule, is ahead of those reforms which the authorities are carrying out. A majority of the Muscovites questioned by us expressed a demand for radical changes in all the life of the nation. This trend partially determines political sympathies, too. 35. The contradictions between the expectations of the public and their realization intensify the critical mood. People no longer want to accept many fewer shortcomings in comparison with those they
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 10 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.