Very often, in discussions of social. networks that discuss and criticize the socio-economic policy of Russia, opponents of the critics bring an invincible argument in its defense, relying on the fact that 86-90% of the population of the Russian Federation, according to a survey by VTsIOM, approve of this policy.

But the objection thatthe VTsIOM polling scheme is sly, unreliable and aimed at shaping public opinion, and not at its real factual assessment,makes no impression. To begin with, we are presented with surveys of only 1,640 citizens of the country from 40 regions (41 people per region), selected at the discretion of the pollsters from a population of 140 million. Thus, reading that 80% of Russian citizens approve of Putin's policy, one must understand that only 1312 people in the country specifically approve of it, and what the rest of the population thinks about this remains beyond the brink of uncertainty.

But in this publication I want to show you what VTsIOM is, in which our citizens so sacredly believe, who and what it consists of, this so-called “non-profit organization”, as well as under whose direct leadership, orders and instructions, she acts. Its essence can be expressed in 2 phrases of its employees on condition of anonymity:

VTsIOM offshores: "We are paid for loyalty with the ability to steal"

“Every Friday, the press releases of VTsIOM are approved in advance by the presidential administration.”

And now the details:

The main forge of public opinion in Russia - VTsIOM, keeps up with the times. Officials from sociology are ready to interpret the figures in the way that curators from the presidential administration require, which is of particular value on the eve of parliamentary and presidential elections. The reward for obedience is the de facto privatization of a state institution, the ability to use budget money, evade taxes and withdraw money offshore.

In the recent past, a state unitary enterprise, and since 2003 an open joint-stock company with 100% state capital - VTsIOM is the most big business in the sociological research market.

On the eve of the elections, the presidential administration (AP) was especially interested in the opinion of Russian citizens. Its representatives are not just members of the Board of Directors of VTsIOM - they are the main customers - not only of the research itself, but also of their results..

"Spoiler Sociologists". Deputy Head of the Internal Policy Department Presidential Administration Alexei Chesnakov constantly follows the work of sociologists.

According to one of the employees of the VTsIOM, the director of the center, Valery Fedorov, personally coordinates with Chesnakov all the questions of the questionnaires for weekly all-Russian express polls of public opinion. Every Friday, the presidential administration approves in advance the press releases of VTsIOM(Analytical reports based on the results of polls, as a rule, on socio-political topics.), which are being prepared for release next week. In this way it is prepared negative attitude to this or that party, the leaders of opposition movements, this or that politician or businessman objectionable to the Kremlin, variants of suggestive polls.

These so-called leading or formative questions, that is, questions that predetermine the response of the respondents. Among serious sociologists, this approach to research is considered unprofessional at best, and at worst a deliberate manipulation of public opinion. This is not science, it is either a scam or political technologies, but it has nothing to do with sociology ,

Leonty Byzov, head of the socio-political analysis department at VTsIOM, confirms this opinion: “This is a method of throwing some problems, ideas, propaganda, etc. into public opinion disguised as sociology. Sometimes the wording of the questions already contains a hint, and our professionalism is to move away from this as much as possible. At the same time, Byzov emphasized that all sociological companies, including VCIOM, sin with such things. And we are not infallible in this. We probably also have issues that can be criticized. I say this boldly, because I do not write all the questions. Sometimes I don’t like something, but nevertheless it is missed,” says the sociologist. Byzov noted that this practice during election campaigns becomes especially popular.

Another way of manipulating the results is the special formulation of answers to questions. We must not allow that there are two answers - one for everything good and the other for everything bad. This always pushes the respondent to the answer the customer needs, Byzov notes. At the same time, in the VTsIOM polls, only two completely polar answers were offered as options for answering the question about the SPS party: (a) Real democrats, reformers who advocate freedom, against bureaucracy and corruption gathered in the Union of Right Forces and b) SPS is a party oligarchs and corrupt officials, associates of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, pursuing an anti-patriotic, pro-American course.)

Sociologists are "Cypriots". Loyalty and willingness to provide the necessary figures, especially on the eve of the elections, as it turned out, is quite profitable. In the case of VTsIOM, the opportunity to use a state institution and all the benefits that come with it to conduct a completely private and non-transparent business. We emphasize: we are talking about a company with 100% state capital, which, it would seem, should be especially scrupulous in financial matters, including tax payments .

Thus, The New Times obtained a scheme of the financial activities of the center, from which it follows that VTsIOM transfers money to foreign offshores, and also uses black and gray tax evasion schemes. We emphasize once again: any business strives to minimize the tax burden (for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, this desire cost 8 years in prison). And that's fine as long as it's within the law. It is not normal when state organizations operate according to black and gray schemes, whose main capital is taxpayers' money. In fact, this is nothing more than double taxation of fellow citizens.

With documents on the financial activities of VTsIOM, The New Times turned to experts - specialists in tax law. Their conclusion: VTsIOM uses rather complex schemes in its practice. Part of the money that this state organization receives as payment for various work - from the sociology of public opinion to marketing research - is transferred abroad to offshore zones to the accounts of two companies. One, Ritsel Ventures Inc, is registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The other, Incorece Ltd, is in Cyprus. Offshore affairs, as the investigation of The New Times showed, are handled by specialists (their names are at the disposal of the editors) in the Moscow branch of the Cypriot bank The Cyprus Popular Bank, as well as in the company Amond & Smith, which provides legal support for offshore companies. The presence of foreign offshore companies in a state-owned company is puzzling, - says a partner of a large financial consulting company on condition of anonymity. - The goal is clear - tax evasion and the withdrawal of capital from the country. But why is it necessary for a state organization? The risks are too great.

"NIICHAVO(Recall the story of Arkady and Boris Strugutsky "Monday begins on Saturday" about the Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry (NIIChaVo)

To implement gray schemes already inside Russia, VTsIOM uses three firms that are not legally connected with the uterus in any way— OJSC NIIPRIM, fund CIOM and RUSOMAR company .

Company NIIPRIM is a kind of personnel center: a significant number of VTsIOM employees leave the state organization and are immediately recruited and become shareholders (and sometimes even founders) of the above desk. Goals: a) savings on income tax (the office, according to our financial consultant, has been transferred to a simplified taxation scheme); b) savings on the unified social tax, which the company itself is obliged to pay. This is done due to the fact that the bulk of the salaries of shareholders-employees are accrued under the guise of dividends. This scheme is only outwardly legitimate,” the financial analyst continues.— Its sole purpose is to reduce taxes, and since 2006, the use of such a scheme is dangerous: it is criminally prosecuted. (Decision of the Supreme Arbitration Court No. 53 of October 12, 2006.)

Registered in Reutov CIOM fund, as the financiers explain, is apparently the main center for making all payments of VTsIOM, its expenses, as well as cashing out large amounts. At the same time, being a “non-profit organization” transferred to a simplified taxation scheme, CIOM allows you to make payments without paying VAT, as well as save income minus expenses according to the well-known scheme. (To this end, at the end of each quarter, CIOM accounts are reset to zero so as not to pay income tax.) In order to evade taxes, all basic expenses (including the purchase of furniture and stationery) are carried out through the fund.

Finally, in third company - RUSOMAR— VTsIOM's tangible assets are being transferred. RUSOMAR is talked about in narrow circles as a possible alternate airfield for the entire management in the event of an unfavorable situation after March 2008. That is why all tangible assets are now being merged there,” says an VTsIOM employee on condition of anonymity. . One of the founders of the company is a Cyprus offshore Incorece Ltd. To date, RUSOMAR's tasks also include the opening regional offices in all seven federal districts. By the way, on the official website of VTsIOM it is indicated that in the near future it is planned to open regional branches - already VTsIOM itself - in the same seven federal districts.

Corrupt "loyalty". A feature of the scheme used by VTsIOM is that all three desk companies are in no way connected with each other - different management, different founders. Equally, they are, as it were, not connected with their uterus - VTsIOM. In addition, VTsIOM directly makes payments only with one of the companies, RUSOMAR, and with the other two, only through intermediaries. A small part of the contracts is officially carried out through VTsIOM itself, while all the rest are through the mentioned firms.

« We are paid for loyalty - the ability to steal . They allow you to sit down on certain financial flows and at the same time do not control,” says a high-ranking VTsIOM official on condition of anonymity. " It, he continues, a classic example of bureaucratic rent: the use of a state-owned enterprise to extract revenues that go into the pockets of officials. We are allowed to earn as long as we fulfill all the conditions. But if we say something superfluous somewhere, they will immediately devour it. In general, I think that the current VTsIOM is not a research organization. She wasn't made for that. It's part of the propaganda machine."

Full text of the articleTechnology of polling citizens of Russia by VTsIOM»

Description

general information

The oldest sociological company in the post-Soviet space (established in 2009 by a decree of the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR as the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion, with - All-Russian - For more information about the history of the creation and development of the company, see the section "History of VTsIOM"). In Russia and abroad, VTsIOM conducts marketing, social and political research full cycle– from the development of a concept and tools to the preparation of analytical reports and presentation of results.

VCIOM has the status of a scientific institution, publishes its own scientific journal (""), manages the work of its own department at the Higher School of Economics and research center at the RSSU, and also regularly holds meetings of its own scientific and expert council, which includes leading sociologists of the country. (For more information about the scientific potential of the center, see the section "Scientific and teaching activities" below).

Team

More than 70 specialists in the field of sociology, marketing, political science, finance, psychology and statistics work in the company's Moscow office. The Center is headed by Valery Fedorov. Among the company's employees are doctors and candidates of sciences, graduates of leading Russian and foreign universities (Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities, Vienna and Moscow Diplomatic Academies, Higher School of Economics, etc.). (For more information about the scientific potential of VTsIOM employees, see the section "Scientific and teaching activities of VTsIOM"). VTsIOM branches operate in all 7 federal districts of the country. The network of interviewers has about 5,000 people.

Research directions

VTsIOM conducts research both at the regional and federal levels, as well as in the post-Soviet space (together with colleagues from other countries former USSR- members of the Eurasian Monitor agency, one of the founders of which is VTsIOM) and in the countries of the "far abroad". Among the main activities of the company:

(For more details, see the section: “VTsIOM Research” and in the note: “Clients and Partners of VTsIOM”)

Methodology

The work uses wide range research technician ( personal interviews, focus groups, mystery shopping, hall tests, exit polls, expert surveys, telephone interviews, etc.). Information processing methods include both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, special sampling programs, etc. Population surveys are conducted weekly based on an all-Russian representative sample (1,600 people in 140 settlements 42 regions of Russia).

VTsIOM Research

At the regional and federal levels, in the post-Soviet space and in the "far abroad" countries, VTsIOM conducts research in 3 main areas:

• politics (electoral research, monitoring of satisfaction with the authorities),
• social sphere (education, medicine, family, housing and communal services, fight against corruption),
• business (finance and insurance, real estate market, development of product and corporate brands, development of corporate reputation, examination of trademarks, market information technologies, media dimensions, sports industry, automotive market), etc.

VTsIOM regularly acts as a coordinator and executor of international research projects for foreign and Russian customers - both in Russia and abroad (among which, in particular: UNDP, US State Department, NATO, etc. More - in the note: "Clients and partners of VTsIOM"). Thus, since 2004 (as well as before the collapse of the USSR), the Center has been actively involved in building a system of regular sociological research in the post-Soviet space (as part of the activities of the Eurasian Monitor agency, one of the founders of which is VTsIOM - along with the sociological services of other former republics of the Soviet Union). Union).

Some VTsIOM projects over the past 5 years

• Exit polls (exit polls) in the parliamentary and presidential elections of the Russian Federation.(customer - OJSC "First Channel") 2007 - 2008.
• (JSC "NK" Rosneft") 2007
• Evaluation of the image of the company-employer.(JSC "Severstal") 2008
• Evaluation of the image of the company-employer.(LLC "RUSAL-Management Company") 2007
• A study of the well-known trademark.(Heineken Commercial Service LLC) 2007
• Social adaptation of people with HIV+ status: assessment of the situation in healthcare, education and employment.(United Nations Development Programme) 2007
• The study of interethnic relations based on the results of all-Russian polls.(Institute of Diaspora and Integration) 2007
• Studying the conditions of the business environment, assessing the interaction between business and government (according to entrepreneurs).(RSPP) 2007-2008
• Study of the level of trust in the media among Russians.
• The attitude of the population of Russia to the judiciary.(Apparatus of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation) 2007
• Sociological research on unfair competition.(Federal Antimonopoly Service) 2007

• Factors and prospects for the development of football in Russia(Fund " National Academy Football") 2006
• Assessment of the attractiveness of housing infrastructure facilities of the Bolshoe Domodedovo investment project("Coalco") 2006-2007
• Study of the perception of NATO by Russians.(NATO) 2006
• Analysis and assessment of the situation of perception by the population of the phenomenon of corruption in the public sector of the Russian Federation.(United Nations Development Program and Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation) 2006

• Investment behavior of the population and awareness of the deposit insurance system.(Deposit Insurance Agency) 2005-2006
• A study of the perception of large pharmaceutical brands in Russia and Eastern Europe.(Stanton Beringer consulting) Annually since 2005
• Conditions for the functioning of small business in the regions of Russia.(OPORA Russia) 2004-2006
• Evaluation of the reputation indicators of JSC Aeroflot(Aeroflot - Russian Airlines) Annually since 2005
• Syndicated Corporate Reputation Study 10 largest companies Russia. Twice per year since 2004.
• Monitoring of the main indicators of the social moods of the inhabitants of the countries of the post-Soviet space. Participants: leading sociological services from 14 post-Soviet countries. Twice a year, since 2003 - within the framework of the Eurasian Monitor project

Scientific and teaching activities

VTsIOM has the status of a scientific institution. In addition, the Center has a scientific and expert council, which includes well-known Russian sociologists, political scientists, philosophers and historians. Since 1993, VTsIOM has been publishing its own scientific journal "Monitoring of public opinion: economic and social changes". The journal is published 6 times a year and has been in the public domain since 2009 (both archive and latest issues). The editorial board of Monitoring includes leading domestic sociologists (employees Russian Academy Sciences, Moscow State University, RSSU, Higher School of Economics, GfK-Rus, etc.).

At the sociological faculty of the Higher School of Economics, there has been (since 2008) the department of VTsIOM, and at the RSSU - the research center of VTsIOM (since 2008).

VTsIOM holds contests scientific works among young scientists - sociologists. It pays scholarships to the most talented sociology students.

The Center regularly creates and publishes author's and collective monographs on the state of public opinion in Russia. Among the latest: "From Yeltsin to Putin: Three Epochs in the Historical Consciousness of Russians" (2007), " Political Russia: Election Guide-2007”, “Political Dictionary of Our Time” (2006), “Russia at the Crossroads of the Second Term” (2005). (For more details, see the link: "VTsIOM Library - some books published by the company's team in last years» ).

The VTsIOM team maintains an archive in which public opinion research has been presented since 1992. So, in the VTsIOM database "Archivarius" - the results of public opinion polls "Express" from 1992 to the present, and in the expanded thematic archive - there are functions of in-depth search in the archive of the Center.

VTsIOM employees regularly make presentations at Russian and foreign scientific conferences and round tables.

Story

Birth. The first public opinion research institute in Russia. 1987

The decision to create VTsIOM (then "All-Union") was adopted at the July 1987 meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The founders were the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR. The first head of the center was Tatyana Zaslavskaya, an academician. Her deputy is Boris Grushin. According to Zaslavskaya, the model for creating the center for her was the Institute of Demoscopy in Germany, headed by E. Noel-Neumann. In - years, thanks to the organizational efforts of Grushin, a network of sociological centers was deployed in the republics of the USSR and regions of Russia. This made it possible in November 1988 to conduct the first mass surveys on representative samples of the adult population of the country, and a year later the surveys were conducted on a systematic basis. In August 1989, Boris Grushin left VTsIOM and organized his own organization for the study of public opinion, Voice of the People,.

"The first of the new." 1992-2003

Appearing at the dawn of perestroika, VTsIOM, according to Alexei Levinson:

"played the role of a mother swarm, from which the emerging families, new agencies for the study of public opinion and the market, separated."

Conflict. 2003

From the very beginning, VTsIOM has been a state-owned sociological company. So, in 1987 the founders of the Center were the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR, then (in 1998) the Center was re-registered as a federal state unitary enterprise (FSUE), and in August, by the decision of the Ministry of Property Relations, the FSUE VTsIOM was transformed into the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research ". As before, the state remained 100% owner of the organization. The board of directors of the company, consisting of representatives of the shareholder - the state, decided to replace the head of the Center (Yury Levada), who headed the company in 1992-2003. A young political scientist, Valery Fedorov, was appointed in his place. Claims against Levada, according to the new leader, were: "stagnation in the scientific field" and the fact that under him were "undeservedly forgotten" studies of "the social situation in the country, the problems of poverty, unemployment, employment, the labor market, emigration." One of the main tasks of Valery Fedorov as director, in his own words, was the preservation of the VTsIOM research team:

“He [Levada] wants to present his own dismissal as the destruction of the leading sociological center of Russia. I assure you that such destruction will not happen. Unfortunately, Yuri Alexandrovich is trying to present his dismissal as a mass exodus from VTsIOM. Of course, we won't allow that.".

VTsIOM today. 2003-2009

VTsIOM continued the research programs developed by the former team and retained the right to publish the journal Public Opinion Monitoring: Economic and Social Changes (since 2003, the former editorial team continued to work in the newly created journal Public Opinion Bulletin).

The priority area of ​​VTsIOM's research today is the political mood of the population, attitudes towards authorities at all levels, their decisions, initiatives and programs. In addition to the authorities, VTsIOM continues to conduct research commissioned by the largest Russian commercial companies and public associations. New areas of research have also appeared, in particular, the company began to pay more attention to the social situation in the country, as well as marketing and international research studies.

Thus, since 2003, VTsIOM has been conducting weekly constructions of social well-being indices. The empirical basis for calculating the indices underlying the time series is the data of weekly Express Polls conducted by VCIOM on a representative all-Russian sample (taking into account quotas by sex, age, education and territorial zoning of the State Statistics Committee) in 42 regions, territories and republics of Russia in 140 settlements (number of respondents 1600 people).

Since 2003, research in the post-Soviet space has also become more important. In 2003, the company became one of the founders of the research agency "Eurasian Monitor" and by 2009 conducts regular surveys of the population in 14 states of the former USSR (in cooperation with colleagues - leading sociological companies in these states.

New regular projects have appeared: The state of the business climate in Russia, the Freedom of Speech Index, the Assessment of Higher Professional Education in Russia, the Assessment of the Courts in the Russian Federation, etc.

The new, more applied and pragmatic focus of VTsIOM research programs was also expressed in the change of the Center's motto: instead of the former "From opinion - to understanding", it became: "To know is to win!"

Criticism

The company is sometimes accused by those who are the object of its research. Thus, the leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, criticizes the objectivity and correctness of the research of the Center: "I believe that this is an unscrupulous research," said the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation G.A. I. Lenin (according to this study, Russians are in favor of reburial of Lenin's body in the cemetery).

VTsIOM is also accused of "special" relations with the Kremlin. The most famous scandal of this kind is associated with the publication in The New Times magazine in the fall of 2007 of a series of materials about the corruption of VTsIOM and the manipulations used in the center's research to please the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. VTsIOM filed a lawsuit against The New Times magazine, and after a ten-month review in September 2008, the court found the published information that the center had a "special commercial relationship" with the Kremlin "untrue" and ordered the magazine to publish a refutation. and the journalist who wrote the articles was ordered by the court to pay a small fine.

However, with regard to the allegations that “when conducting polls, sociologists [from VTsIOM] on behalf of various parties use so-called formative questions, that is, questions that lead to strictly defined answers,” the court refused to satisfy VTsIOM's claims. The court decided: "The applicant's argument that the surveys conducted by VTsIOM were not of a formative nature is unfounded." “VCIOM press release No. 771 dated September 18, 2007, to which there is a link in statement of claim, testifies to the opposite, ”says the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court. Judgment in this regard has been challenged by the applicant and the investigation is ongoing.

Notes

1. "Monitoring of public opinion: economic and social changes"
2. "Media ratings of sociological centers"
3. "Professional network ESOMAR"
4. Eurasian Monitor
5. "Monitoring log archive"
6. "VCIOM Library"
7. "Database Archivist"
8. "Expanded thematic archive"
9. Grushin B.
10. Zaslavskaya T. How VTsIOM was Born / Public Fracture and the Birth of a New Sociology: Twenty Years of Monitoring. - S. 11-17.
11. Alexey Levinson's pages
12. Grushin B. On the far and near approaches to the creation of VTsIOM / Social break and the birth of a new sociology: twenty years of monitoring. - M.: New publishing house, 2008. - S. 18-22.
13. history of the company
14. Levada Yu. From opinions to understanding. Sociological essays 1993-2000. SS. 391-548.
15. Levada Y. We are looking for a person. Sociological essays 2000-2005. SS. 263-379.
16. Interview with Valery Fedorov / Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 11.09.2003
17. Interview with Valery Fedorov / Weekly magazine, No. 150 of 01/13/2005

All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, VCIOM(until 1992 - All-Union) - the oldest Russian research organization that regularly conducts sociological and marketing research based on public opinion polls. One of the largest Russian companies in this market. Created in 1987. 100% of the company's shares belong to the state.

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Description

The oldest sociological company in the post-Soviet space (established in 1987 by a decree of the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR as the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion, s - All-Russian). VTsIOM conducts marketing, social and political research of the full cycle - from the development of a concept and tools to the preparation of analytical reports and presentation of results.

Research is carried out both at the regional and federal levels, as well as abroad. There are partnerships and research is being conducted both in the post-Soviet space and in the EU countries, in Japan, China, etc. Among the partners and customers of the Center's research are leading Russian and foreign companies, universities, government institutions: International Committee Red Cross, United Nations Development Program, Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, Kommersant Publishing House, Reuters, NATO (NATO Moscow), US Department of State, Higher School of Economics, RSSU, Rosneft, RUSAL, Samsung, Intel, etc.

VTsIOM is a member of a number of international professional networks (Intersearch, Eurasian Monitor, etc.) and in its research is guided by ESOMAR standards and norms.

VTsIOM has the status of a scientific institution, publishes its own scientific journal (""), manages the work of its own department at the Higher School of Economics and the research center at the RSSU, and also regularly holds meetings of its own Scientific and Expert Council, which includes leading sociologists of the country.

VTsIOM was a federal state unitary enterprise, in 2003 it was corporatized. However, 100% of the company's shares belong to the state.

Structure and employees

The central office of VTsIOM is located in Moscow. Branches of the company operate in all 7 federal districts of the country. More than 70 specialists in the field of sociology, marketing, political science, finance, psychology and statistics work in the company's Moscow office. The Center is headed by Valeriy Fedorov. Since 2011 Yuri Voitsekhovsky has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Among the company's employees are doctors and candidates of sciences, graduates of leading Russian and foreign universities (Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities, Vienna and Moscow Diplomatic Academies, Higher School of Economics, etc.). Own network of interviewers has about 5000 people. Leading departments of the company include:

• Development Directorate
• Communications Directorate
• Department of Socio-Political Research
  • Department of Political Studies
  • Department of Social Research
• Business Research Office

VTsIOM Research

At the regional and federal levels, in the post-Soviet space and in the countries of the “far abroad”, VTsIOM conducts research in 3 main areas:

• politics (electoral research, monitoring of satisfaction with the authorities),
• social sphere (education, medicine, family, housing and communal services, fight against corruption),
• business (finance and insurance, the real estate market, the development of product and corporate brands, the development of corporate reputation, the examination of trademarks, the information technology market, media measurements, the sports industry, the automotive market), etc.

VTsIOM regularly acts as a coordinator and executor of international research projects for foreign and Russian customers - both in Russia and abroad, including UNDP, US State Department, NATO, etc. Since 2004, the Center has been actively involved in building a system of regular sociological research in the post-Soviet space (as part of the activities of the Eurasian Monitor agency, one of the founders of which is VTsIOM - along with the sociological services of other former republics of the Soviet Union).

The work uses a wide range of research techniques (personal interviews, focus groups, mystery shopping, hall tests, exit polls, expert surveys, telephone interviews, etc.). Among the methods of information processing are both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, special sampling programs, etc. Weekly population surveys are conducted on an all-Russian representative sample (1600 people in 140 settlements of 42 regions of Russia).

Some VTsIOM projects over the past 5 years

Scientific and teaching activities

VTsIOM has the status of a scientific institution. In addition, the Center has a scientific and expert council, which includes well-known Russian sociologists, political scientists, philosophers and historians. Since 1993, VTsIOM has been publishing its own scientific journal “Monitoring public opinion: economic and social changes”. The journal is published 6 times a year and has been in the public domain since 2009 (both archive and latest issues). The editorial board of "Monitoring" (completely updated in 2003) includes leading domestic sociologists (employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University, RSSU, SU-HSE, GfK-Rus, etc.

At the Faculty of Sociology of the Higher School of Economics, there has been (since 2008) the Department of VTsIOM, and at the RSSU - the Research Center of VTsIOM (since 2008). VTsIOM holds competitions of scientific works among young scientists - sociologists. It pays scholarships to the most talented sociology students.

The Center regularly publishes author's and collective monographs on the state of public opinion in Russia. Among the latter: "From Yeltsin to Putin: Three Epochs in the Historical Consciousness of Russians" (2007), "Political Russia: Election Guide 2007", "Political Dictionary of Our Time" (2006), "Russia at the Crossroads of the Second Term" (2005) . VTsIOM employees regularly make presentations at Russian and foreign scientific conferences and round tables.

The VTsIOM team maintains an archive in which public opinion research has been presented since 1992. So, in the VTsIOM database "Archivarius" - the results of public opinion polls "Express" from 1992 to the present, and in the expanded thematic archive - there are functions of in-depth search in the archive of the Center.

Story

Birth. The first public opinion research institute in Russia. 1987

The resolution on the creation of VTsIOM (then still "all-Union") was adopted at the July meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1987. The founders were the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR. The first head of the center was Tatyana Zaslavskaya, academician. Her deputy is Boris Grushin. According to Zaslavskaya, the model for creating the center for her was the Institute of Demoscopy in Germany, headed by E. Noel-Neumann. In -1988, thanks to the organizational efforts of Grushin, a network of sociological centers was deployed in the republics of the USSR and regions of Russia. This made it possible in November 1988 to conduct the first mass surveys on representative samples of the adult population of the country, and a year later the surveys were conducted on a systematic basis. In August 1989, Boris Grushin left VTsIOM and organized his own organization for the study of public opinion, Voice of the People,.

At the same time, VCIOM, which appeared at the dawn of perestroika, exact definition Alexei Levinson, "played the role of a mother swarm from which emerged families, new agencies for the study of public opinion and the market." So, in August 1989, Boris Grushin left VTsIOM and organized his own organization for the study of public opinion, Voice of the People. In 1991, one of the leading marketing services was founded on the basis of the VTsIOM team. modern Russia- KOMKON company. In 1992, FOM separated from VTsIOM, originally created as a division of the center to raise funds charities, and in 2003 VTsIOM-A was created, later renamed the Levada Center.

2003 Conflict

From the very beginning, VTsIOM has been a state-owned sociological company. So, in 1987 the founders of the Center were the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions and the State Committee for Labor of the USSR, then (in 1998) the Center was re-registered as a federal state unitary enterprise (FGUP), and in August 2003, by the decision of the Ministry of Property Relations, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise VCIOM was transformed into the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public opinions." As before, the state remained 100% the owner of the organization. The board of directors of the company, consisting of representatives of the shareholder - the state, decided to replace the head of the Center (Yury Levada), who headed the company in 1992-2003. A young political scientist Valery Fedorov was appointed in his place. Claims against Levada, according to the new leader, were: "stagnation in the scientific field" and the fact that under him were "undeservedly forgotten" studies of "the social situation in the country, the problems of poverty, unemployment, employment, the labor market, emigration." One of the main tasks of Valery Fedorov as director, in his own words, was the preservation of the VTsIOM research team:

“He [Levada] wants to present his own dismissal as the destruction of the leading sociological center of Russia. I assure you that such destruction will not happen. Unfortunately, Yuri Alexandrovich is trying to present his dismissal as a mass exodus from VTsIOM. Of course, we won't allow that." .

Further history (2003-present)

VTsIOM continued to conduct research programs started by the former team and publish the journal “Monitoring public opinion: economic and social changes” (since 2003, the former editorial team continued to work in the newly created journal “Vestnik public opinion”).

The priority area of ​​VTsIOM's research today is the political mood of the population, attitudes towards authorities at all levels, their decisions, initiatives and programs. In addition to the authorities, VTsIOM continues to conduct research commissioned by the largest Russian commercial companies and public associations. New areas of research have also appeared, in particular, the company began to pay more attention to the social situation in the country, as well as marketing and international research.

Thus, since 2003, VTsIOM has been conducting weekly constructions of social well-being indices. The empirical basis for calculating the indices underlying the time series is the data of weekly Express Polls conducted by VCIOM on a representative all-Russian sample (taking into account quotas by sex, age, education and territorial division of the State Statistics Committee) in 42 regions, territories and republics of Russia in 140 settlements (number of respondents 1600 people).

Since 2003 greater value acquired research in the post-Soviet space. In 2003, the company became one of the founders of the research agency "Eurasian Monitor" and by 2009 conducts regular surveys of the population in 14 states of the former USSR.

In July 2016, VTsIOM agreed with the British holding WPP on the purchase of TNS Russia, which measures the TV audience in Russia to calculate the cost of advertising. The start of talks about the sale was given at the end of June 2016, after the adoption by the State Duma of a ban on foreign companies from engaging in telemetry in Russia if the share of foreign participation is more than 20%.

Criticism

The company is sometimes accused by those who are the object of its research. Thus, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov, criticizes the objectivity and correctness of the research of the Center: “I believe that this is an unscrupulous research,” said G. A. Zyuganov, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, evaluating, at the request of the media, the published results of the VTsIOM study on the problem of the Mausoleum V. I. Lenin (according to this study, Russians are in favor of reburial of Lenin's body in the cemetery).

VTsIOM often makes calls to citizens' home phones without their prior consent, and they can call late at night, and on weekends and holidays.

Court between The New Times and VTsIOM

VTsIOM is also accused of "special" relations with the Kremlin. For example, Natalya Morar, one of the authors of The New Times magazine, in the fall of 2007, published a series of materials about the corruption of VTsIOM and the manipulations used in the center's research to please the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. In December 2007, it became known that Natalia Morari was banned from entering Russia. VTsIOM also filed a lawsuit against The New Times magazine, and after a ten-month review in September 2008, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized the published information that the center had “special commercial relations” with the Kremlin as “untrue” and ordered the magazine to publish a refutation and pay a fine of 10,000 rubles, and the court ordered the journalist who wrote the articles to pay a fine of 100 rubles.

However, with regard to the accusations that “when conducting polls, sociologists from VTsIOM on behalf of various parties use the so-called formative questions, that is, questions that lead to strictly defined answers,” the court refused to satisfy the claims of VTsIOM. The court decided: “The applicant’s argument that the surveys conducted by VTsIOM were not of a formative nature is unfounded,” and “the VTsIOM press release No. Moscow Arbitration Court. The judgment in this connection has been contested by the applicant and the investigation is ongoing.

However, in August 2013, the director of VTsIOM, Valery Fedorov, noted that the main customer of VTsIOM is the Kremlin and the United Russia party, and that the results of polls conducted on their orders can be published only after the permission of the customer.

"89.9% of lies," - this is how Igor Eidman, ex-director for communications of VTsIOM, spoke about the record rating of President Vladimir Putin, recently calculated by VTsIOM. In an entry on his Facebook page, he wrote the following: “The media are discussing Putin’s new record rating. However, taking VTsIOM figures seriously is, of course, ridiculous. I’m telling you this as the former communications director of this organization. "Party of Crooks and Thieves" - " United Russia". And there is the official SZhiV, "Sociology of Crooks and Thieves" - this is VTsIOM. I redeemed my guilt for a short stay in this puppet theater of the Kremlin Karabas-Barabas by telling everything I know about it and handing over the relevant documents to the New Times magazine. In this publication, based on my materials, three revealing articles were published about how the leaders of VTsIOM are manually controlled from the presidential administration, coordinate literally every step with it, and the money received from government orders is poured into front offshore companies.

Then I testified in court, where VTsIOM sued the New Times, and confirmed the accusations contained in the article. As a result, the Kremlinites managed to challenge only one unprincipled position. And the whole criminal story about cuts and offshore companies was confirmed. The author of the article, Natalia Morari, as a Moldovan citizen, was then expelled from Russia, and I was threatened by mail on behalf of some non-existent "Chechen" Valid Daurov. To be honest, I thought that after all that had happened, it would be somehow indecent to refer to the results of VTsIOM research, that not a single self-respecting journalist or expert would plunge into this city ... anymore. But, as the classic said: “Having never seen such a thing, and here it is again!”.

Of course, the VTsIOM information about the mood of the population has no value. VTsIOM always stands in the pose of "whatever you want", implicitly following the instructions of the authorities. His data do not record real public sentiments, but what the Putin administration would like them to see at this moment. Now the government wants to announce that it is more popular than ever. What is it for? Putin apparently must demonstrate to the "city and the world" that his course for war (in this case Syrian) is justified and effective. Apparently, many doubt it. In general, the course towards permanent war, taken in 2014, was largely dictated by purely applied internal tasks Russian leadership. By this time, the well-being of the country's inhabitants, based on high oil prices, had reached its maximum. However, the collapse in energy prices that began in mid-2014 was just around the corner. The Russian authorities expected him and understood that he would inevitably plunge the country into an economic crisis. What was needed was a “small victorious war” that could distract people from their pressing problems and difficulties. And Putin started it with the capture of the Crimea.

A "strong hand" in the view of the layman is needed in order to protect him from "enemies". The Russian dictator, in order to justify his power, needs to constantly invent new enemies and wage a permanent war with them. Not so important: in Ukraine, in Syria, anywhere. The main thing: "The Show Must Go On!", the military TV show for the townsfolk must go on. Today, a temporary lull on the Ukrainian front, so that, God forbid, the degree of patriotic enthusiasm of the population does not fall, is compensated by a new war in another, Syrian direction. But how effective is this strategy? In an authoritarian society, it is impossible to understand how people really relate to power, how strong their loyalty is. The well-known sociologist Shlepentokh wrote: “In general, our research on the eve of Perestroika testified to the complete loyalty of the population to the Soviet system, its ideology and its leadership. Our data turned out to be a poor predictor of what will happen in a few years. Gorbachev and his team almost instantly destroyed the Soviet system, without meeting resistance not only from the masses, but also from the party apparatus, the party and the KGB.

Putin’s authorities seem to be wishful thinking, telling themselves as in a session with a psychotherapist: everything is going according to plan, the strategy of maintaining military hysteria is successful, the regime is more popular and durable than ever (and VTsIOM helpfully gives them the necessary “information”). I remember that the Soviet rulers behaved the same way. And then their power was covered with a copper basin."