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Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM or VCIOM) ( rus, Всероссийский центр изучения общественного мнения – ВЦИОМ, Vserossiysky tsentr izucheniya obshchestvennogo mneniya) is a
state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public owne ...
polling institution established in 1987, known as the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion until 1992. VTsIOM is the oldest polling institution in post-Soviet Russia and one of Russia's leading sociological and
market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Ma ...
companies. It was established in 1987 under the decree issued by VCSPS (
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (ACCTU; russian: Всесоюзный центральный совет профессиональных союзов, VTsSPS) was the national trade union federation of the Soviet Union. The federati ...
) and
USSR State Committee of Labor Goskomtrud (russian: Госкомтруд) was the State Committee for Labour and Social Issues in the Soviet Union. It dealt with labour relations and wage issues. A 1991 western (American) review of the institution claimed over-emphasis on wage p ...
as the All-Union Public Opinion Research Center (and in 1992 renamed the Russian Public Opinion Research Center). In 2003 VCIOM became an 'open joint-stock company with full state ownership'. VTsIOM conducts "full cycle" marketing, social and political research, from instrument design and data collection to analysis and presentation of findings to its clients. VTsIOM branch offices operate in all seven of Russia's federal districts. Besides its own branches, Center has partnership agreements with a significant number of local regional research firms. VTsIOM has its own interviewers’ network, which consists of about 5,000 people.


Science and teaching

VTsIOM holds the status of scientific institution. Besides that, there is a scientific Expert Council functioning in the Center, which consists of Russian sociologists, political scientists, marketologists, philosophers, and historians. VTsIOM holds competitions of scientific works among young researchers. Since 2003, it has published its own journal, called ''Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes'', which is issued six times a year. Since 2009 it has been available via open Internet access (both its Archive and recent issues). The Editorial Boarl includes leading Russian sociologists (Russian Academy of Science staff, Moscow State University, Russian State Social University, Higher School of Economics, Institute for Market Research GFK-Rus staff and others). There is VTsIOM Department Chair in the Higher School of Economics that has been operating since 2008, and VTsIOM Research Center in the Russian State Social University operating since 2008. The Center designs and publishes monographs and edited volumes of sociological research devoted to the state of the public opinion in Russia. The recent monographs are: ''From Eltsin to Putin: three epochs in the historical consciousness of Russians'' (2007), ''Political Russia: pre-elections guide – 2007'', ''Political Dictionary of The Present'' (2006), ''Russia on the Crossroads of the 2d Term'' (2005). For more details see: "VCIOM Library: some of the recent books" Public opinion research dating prior to 1992 are stored in an archive. The results of the public opinion polls "Express" since 1992 have been stored in “Archivist Database”. VTsIOM is the member of international professional networks including InterSearch and the Eurasian Monitor. It is guided by the European Society for Opinion and Market Research
ESOMAR ESOMAR is a membership organization A membership organization is any organization that allows people or entities to subscribe, and often requires them to pay a membership fee or "subscription". Membership organizations typically have a particula ...
standards and norms. There are more than 70 specialists employed in the company headquarters in Moscow (with expertise in sociology, marketing, political science, finance, psychology, and statistics), as well as dozens in its offices around the country. The head of the Center is Valery Fedorov.


History


Foundation (1987)

The Decree to launch VTsIOM (All-Union in those times) was adopted at the July meeting of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,  – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...
in 1987. The founders were VCSPS (All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions) and USSR State Committee of Labour. The first director was Tatyana Zaslavskaya (academician). Zaslavskaya tells that the
Institute of Demoscopy The Allensbach Institute, formally the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research or Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Polling (german: Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach), is a private polling institute based in Allensbach, Baden-W� ...
(Federal Republic of Germany) headed by
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (19 December 1916 – 25 March 2010) was a German political scientist. Her most famous contribution is the model of the spiral of silence, detailed in ''The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin''. The m ...
was taken as a model when establishing the Center. Grushin made many efforts in 1987-1988 to set up a network of sociological centers in the Republics of the USSR and regions of Russia. That made possible to conduct the first mass surveys on a representative samples among adults in November 1988; a year later these surveys became systematical. In 1988
Yury Levada Yuri Alexandrovich Levada (russian: Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Лева́да; 24 April 1930 in Vinnytsia – 16 November 2006 in Moscow) was a well known Russian sociologist, political scientist and the founder of the Levada Cente ...
together with his students (Lev Gudkov, Boris Dubin, Alexey Levinson and others) went to work in VTsIOM (first as the head of the Theoretical Research Department and later – since 1992 as the head of the company). In an interview Yuri Levada talks about the first years of VTsIOM, refers to Tatyana Zaslavskaya (Татьяна Заславская) and Boris Grushin (Борис Грушин) as the founders of VTsIOM in 1987 and states that he was invited by them to join VTsIOM.


Growth, 1989–2003

VTsIOM became widely respected for its objectivity and professionalism among academics and journalists in both the Soviet Union and the West. In the 1990s, the agency's polls gained a reputation for being very reliable. During this period VTsIOM had conducted over 1,000 polls. Being the first sociological institution in the USSR (and Russia), VTsIOM served as the cradle for numerous marketing and sociological centers of the country. In August 1989 Boris Grushin left VTsIOM to establish his own organization studying the public opinion "Vox Populi - Glas Naroda" (People’s Voice). In 1992 the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) that was originally established as a Division of the Center for raising charity funds, separated from VTsIOM. In 1999 VCIOM achieved scientific institute status.


Conflict (2003)

Although VTsIOM received no budget money and funded itself with private and public sector polling contracts (grants) from the breakdown of Soviet Union in 1992 to 2003, Levada had not addressed the fact that the polling agency remained a state-owned company as a FGUP (Russian abbreviation for: Federal State Unit). In 2003 the Ministry of Property of the Russian Federation decided to transform FGUP VTsIOM to JSC "Russian Public Opinion Research Center", 100% share of which was to be held by the state. There still would have been no budget allocated for it from the state and the company was to continue its work based on financing from both private and public institutions. However this change was taken by Yuri Levada as an attempt to affect the outcomes of VTsIOM studies. As a result, the previous VTsIOM employees left the company and followed Yuri Levada to the new established non-governmental
Levada Center The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to 1 ...
. A young political scientist - Valery Fedorov who, as some sources note, was close to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation headed the office. VTsIOM carried on research programs introduced by its previous staff and continued to publish the ''Monitoring of Public Opinion'' journal; in 2003 former editorial board members began publishing a new journal called the ''Public Opinion Herald''. There is conflicting data about response from other Russian sociologists to the breakup of VTsIOM. Some sources reported that every sociologist left with Levada while others claims they were silent, except for Grushin. The dispute over the legality of using the VTsIOM brand in sociological community ended up in 2004 The
Federal Antimonopoly Service The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) (russian: Федеральная антимонопольная служба России, ФАС России) is the federal-level executive governmental organ that controls the execution of the ...
decided to give VTsIOM the full right of use of the brand "VTsIOM" and prohibited Levada-Center to use it. When asked about VTsIOM management change during his visit to
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in the United States in September 2003, Russian president
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
was supportive of the change in management.


Present role as the state's main sociological research center

The research priorities today are political ratings, social mood indices, governmental programs, and reforms. VTsIOM still conducts research for the most significant Russian private and public institutions. New - applied and pragmatic focus of research programs is expressed in a change in its slogan - "Information for success!" instead of the former "From opinion – towards understanding".


Criticism

The Center is sometimes criticized by its subjects of study.
Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (russian: Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician, who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as M ...
(leader of
Communist Party of Russian Federation Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
) criticized VTsIOM's objectivity when evaluating media request results of VTsIOM study on
Lenin's Mausoleum Lenin's Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum) ( rus, links=no, Мавзолей Ленина, r=Mavzoley Lenina, p=məvzɐˈlʲej ˈlʲenʲɪnə), also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated on Red Square in the centre of Moscow, i ...
stating "I think this is an unprofessional study". According to VTsIOM, Russians supported burying Lenin's remains in a cemetery rather than keeping them in the mausoleum."Ziuganov about the results of VTsIOM opinion poll on Lenin Mausoleum"
/ref> According to Berlin-based ''bne IntelliNews'', VTsIOM’s question about the
2019 Moscow protests Starting from July 2019 numerous approved and unapproved rallies in Moscow (also known as part of the political crisis) began, caused by the situation with the 2019 Moscow City Duma elections. Widespread public protests were triggered by numerous ...
was "subtly designed to give a result that supports the government’s point of view."


Research

VTsIOM conducts research on both regional and federal levels, as well as in the post-Soviet space (together with colleagues from the former USSR—members of "Eurasian Monitor" Agency) and other countries. Topics of interest include: * Politics: elections, politician approval ratings, protest potential * Social sphere: education, health care, family, housing, corruption * Business: finance and insurance, product and corporate brand development, corporate reputation, trademarks, IT and media, auto sector, real estate, sports industry


Methods

A wide range of research techniques, such as personal interviews,
focus group A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of demographically similar people or participants who have other common traits/experiences. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are ...
s, mystery shopping, hall tests,
exit poll An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for ...
s, expert surveys, and telephone interviews, is used. Research methods include both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, as well as sample building programs. Surveys based on a representative sampling are conducted every week on 1,600 people from 140 places throughout the 42 regions of Russia.


Selected VTsIOM projects

VTsIOM regularly coordinates and implements international research projects for foreign and Russian customers such as
UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
,
U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
Bureau in Moscow and others. Since 2004 the Center has actively participated in designing the system of regular sociological research in the post-Soviet area (in the framework of "Eurasian Monitor",Eurasia Monitor
/ref> VTsIOM is one of the founders of Eurasian Monitor as well as other sociological services in the
former USSR The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
republics. * "Exit Polls at parliamentary and presidential elections" (client – "1st TV Channel") 2007 - 2008 * "Evaluation of the company-employer image" ("RosNeft") 2007 * "Evaluation of the company-employer image" ("Severstal") 2008 * "Evaluation of the company-employer image" ("RusAl – management company") 2007 * "Study on the Brand General Fame" ("Heineken-Commercial") 2007 * "Social Adaptation of HIV-infected: Estimating the situation in healthcare, education and employment" (UNDP) 2007 * "Study of national relationship upon the results of Nationwide surveys" (Institute for Diaspora and Integration) 2007 * "Study of entrepreneurial environment conditions, evaluation of business and power interaction" (RSPP) 2007-2008 * "Study of the level of trust of Russians towards mass media" (Office of the Public Chamber of Russia) 2007 * "Attitude of Russians towards Justice" (Office of the Public Chamber of Russia) 2007 * "Sociological research on unfair competition" (Federal Antimonopoly Service) 2007 * "Factors and perspectives of the development of football in Russia" (National Football Academy" Fund) 2006 * "Evaluation of housing attractiveness of investment project "Bolshoe Domodedovo" ("Coalco") 2006-2007 * "Study of the perception of NATO by Russians" (NATO Bureau in Moscow) 2006 * "Analysis and evaluation of the perception of corruption in the public sector by population" (UNDP and RF Accounting Chamber) 2006 * "Investment Behavior of the Population and Awareness about the Deposit Insurance System" (Deposit Insurance Agency) 2005-2006 * "Study on the perception of large pharmaceutical brands in Russia and Eastern European countries" (Stanton Beringer consulting), annually since 2005 * "Small enterprises functioning conditions in the regions of Russia" (OPORA Russia) 2004-2006 * "Evaluation of the reputational indicators" (Aeroflot – Russian Airlines), annually beginning since 2005 * "Syndicated research of corporate reputation of ten biggest companies of Russia", twice a year since 2004 * "Monitoring of the main indicators of social mood in post-soviet area countries". Participants: leading sociological services in 14 post-Soviet countries. Twice a year since 2003, in the framework of "Eurasian Monitor"


See also

*
Opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...


References


External links


VCIOM site in Russian

VCIOM in English
- press-releases, polls, surveys, experts comments
VCIOM blog

VCIOM data publications in russian mass media

VCIOM data publications in foreign mass media


{{Authority control Society of Russia Research institutes in Russia Organizations established in 1987 Sociological organizations Public opinion research companies