The Russians summed up the year of 2012

 

Author: VK

 

The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center presented data on how Russians assess the outgoing year and the expectations of the coming year, what events are the key ones, and who are the people of the year  in politics, sports, and arts.

 

According to Valery Fedorov, Director General of All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTSIOM), among world events in the first place there are various events in the Middle East – the conflict in Syria, all sorts of unrest in Egypt, the next war in the Gaza Strip. In the second place there is the victory of Barack Obama in the presidential election (23%). Finally, the third is London Olympics.

 

For comparison, last year in Russia, two events shared the first place – the revolution in Libya and the earthquake, flood, nuclear accident in Japan, famous Fukushima. The economic crisis was in the third place, including the crisis in the eurozone.

 

The list of the events that in Ukraine are considered important world events differs from the Russian list. In the first place there are a variety of natural disasters in the United States, Japan, Russia, typhoons, tornadoes, floods and so on. In the second place there is Euro 2012. It is also understandable, because Ukraine was one of two countries that hosted the championship. And the U.S. presidential election is in third place in the list of major events.

 

As for the events in Russia, in the first place there is the March presidential election, followed by the flooding in Krymsk in July this year, and the third is a series of corruption scandals, the most well-known of them, of course, was a scandal in the Ministry of Defense.

 

For comparison, in Ukraine the main events were the Euro 2012, parliamentary elections in autumn, and the trial of Tymoshenko.

 

Among the most high-profile events of the year there is the following hierarchy: the first place is taken by presidential election, followed by the summer floods in the Kuban, and the third is Olympic Games in London. That is, these are the same events. Next, there is corruption, the resignation of Serdyukov, plane crash of the ATR-72 at Tyumen, celebrating Christmas and New Year in the previous year, the death of Marina Golub in a traffic accident, the mass murder in American school , the death of Galina Vishnevskaya and the murder of five people in the office by lawyer Vinogradov.

 

The losses of the year of 2012 are Marina Golub, Galina Vishnevskaya, Ilya Oleinikov and Igor Kvasha.

 

The perception of main events by online audience was assessed by the rating of blogs made by Yandex. “We compared the events of one and another list, the top ten. And here's an interesting result - there is only one event in the two lists at once. This is the death of Marina Golub. All other events are completely different. That is, the Internet audience is a very special audience. And these are blogs, that is, not the ones who go to the Internet but those who write on the Internet”, Valery Fedorov says.

 

As for the politicians of the year, 54% called Vladimir Putin a politician of the year; in the second place, there was Dmitry Medvedev, 16%,  and the third is Sergei Shoigu, who pushed V. V. Zhirinovsky.

 

In the nomination "Writer of the Year” Darya Dontsova is in the first place with 8%, followed by Boris Akunin, however, by a large margin - 3%, and the third place was shared by Tatyana Ustinova and Aleksandra Marinina (2%). “Dontsova this year got a lot of votes, because, for example, last year she was in the second place with 3%, and Akunin was even a little ahead. And Ustinova remained in the third place. So there is no powerful upgrade of the block of Russian writers, not only politicians”, Fedorov says.

 

Athlete of the year of 2012 is Evgeni Plushenko. The last time he was athlete of the year was in 2007, 5 years ago, and now he came back - he scored 9%. Andrei Arshavin is in the second place, and Maria Sharapova is in the third place. For comparison, last year Andrei Arshavin was number one, and Fedor Yemelyanenko went after him.

 

In the nomination "Singer of the Year” Stas Mikhailov is in first place with 9%. Last year he was third. The second place is shared by Nikolai Baskov and Philipp Kirkorov, and Alla Pugacheva is in the third place. For comparison, in 2011, Philipp Kirkorov was in the first place, Nikolai Baskov was second, and Stas Mikhailov was third.

 

In the nomination "Actor and Actress of the Year" Sergei Bezrukov is in the first place. Marina Golub and Konstantin Khabenskiy shared the second place, 4%. And Michael Porechenkov gained 3%. Last year, in the top three, besides Bezrukov, there were Averin and Yevgeny Mironov.

 

The respondents were also asked to describe the main feeling with which they celebrate the New Year. People could choose one of three options: "a good mood, a sense of optimism," "a bad mood, low expectations", or "secondary, intermediate, do not feel anything special, but without negative emotions." 

 

In 2005, 17% met the New Year with a bad mood, pessimistic expectations. Further, this share declined. In 2007, it even was 8%, but then the crisis came, and in 2008 the New Year of 2009 was celebrated with pessimism by over 20% respondents.

 

But this negative trend was not long. Already in 2009, the percentage of pessimists again sharply decreased to 11%, and today it is 10%.

 

10% have a negative feeling celebrating the New Year, and 34% have positive expectations. And the largest number of optimists was in 2007, the last pre-crisis year, when it seemed that everything is fine, and everything will continue to only get better. Then there were 40% optimists. But the majority, both 7 years ago and now, then 52%, now 54% - those who have no special feelings, but do not feel negative emotions.