Russians name icons of 20th century

For almost 20 years, Russians have viewed the first man in space Yuri Gagarin, singer-songwriter and actor Vladimir Vysotsky and Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov as the 20th century’s key icons, according to the poll, conducted by All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center.

"Vladimir Vysotsky remains one of Russia’s foremost 20th century icons, as 28% of those surveyed in 2018 mentioned his name, compared to 31% in 1999. Vysotsky is second following Yuri Gagarin (44% in 2018)," the statement says. Soviet Marshal and four-time Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov came in third.

The poll shows that almost every Russian knows his name, while 92% of those familiar with his work said that they had been positively affected by it.

The nationwide telephone poll, involving 2,000 people, was conducted on January 19-20. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2% at the 95% confidence level.