24.01.2002, Gvozdeva E.
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Unofficial symbols form the concept of the state to no lesser extent, and often a degree better than official ones. Symbols like the Statue of Liberty in the USA, the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elys&233es in France are firmly bound up with the respective countries in people's minds.
Participants in the focus groups shared this opinion, mentioning the fact that unofficial symbols often matter more for a stereotyped apprehension of the country than official symbols do.
- «A foreigner coming to Moscow does not think of the flag... Anyway, he goes to Red Square first. In other words, to well-known sights, where tourists are usually brought. I mean nobody tells the tourists what kind of flag, anthem, national coat-of-arms or something else we have. Red Square is at the beginning. Everything starts with unofficial symbols and ends, probably, with official ones» (DFG, Moscow).
At the same time, there is no common notion of what could be attributed to the unofficial Russian symbols.
- «Moderator: Well, and what about the unofficial symbols?... All that is known in every country can be named unofficial symbols.
Sergey: It is something like an animal that is associated with the country.
Roman: Well-known people.
Galina: Vodka» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
Discussing unofficial symbols of Russia, respondents clearly divided them into the «true symbols», reflecting the historical greatness of the state, its achievements and role in the world's history, and «label symbols» – the primitive stereotypes of how Russia is seen from abroad.
The list of «label symbols» closely resembles the assortment of a Soviet souvenir shop: vodka, matrioshkas and the balalaika. Respondents themselves think of these symbols as some kind of insult, because they characterize Russia as a country with a primitive culture. At the same time, respondents pointed out that these associations are just what comes to foreigners' minds when they hear the word «Russia."
- «Moderator: When you tell somebody: «I am from Russia,» what do you think comes to the foreigner's mind first?
Participant 1: They say – Russian bears and vodka.
Participant 2: In Spain – there are matrioshkas.
Participant 3: And birch trees.
Participant 3: The birch tree, the balalaika, and bears» (DFG, Moscow).
- «Participant 1: For the foreigners, it's the hammer and sickle...
Participant 2: A souvenir shop» (DFG, Moscow).
- «Moderator: What is a symbol of Russia for foreigners?
Participant 1: Vodka.
Participant 2: A bear.
Participant 3: Matrioshkas» (DFG, Samara).
Discussion participants ranked monuments of history and culture as «true symbols." In the first place they recalled the main sights of Moscow and St. Petersburg: The Kremlin and Red Square, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Ostankinskaya Tower, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Hermitage and the Winter Palace.
- «Well, if we choose from architecture, let us say the Kremlin» (DFG, Moscow).
- «Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Historical Museum – the ensemble as a whole» (DFG, Moscow).
- «Moscow's cathedrals, practically all of them, but St. Basil's is probably known better...(DFG, Novosibirsk).
- «It is most likely St. Petersburg. There are many more historical monuments there» (DFG, Samara).
Respondents are inclined to believe that for foreigners, Russia is associated to a greater extent with vodka than with its historical sites. It is not a coincidence that during the focus group discussions, the tune of «alcoholic symbols» sounded importunately:
- «Well, speaking about informal symbols... It is rough, certainly... but when I happened to visit Leningrad in the 1970s, there was prohibition in Finland. They came in fully-packed buses to buy vodka. I don't know, it may have been a symbol for them» (DFG, Moscow).
But for all that, the respondents emphasize that only foreigners consider vodka a basic symbol of Russia.
- «Moderator: Is vodka also a symbol of the country for us?
Participant: For us? It is a symbol for foreigners, but I don't think it's a symbol for us» (DFG, Moscow).
In the course of these discussions, there was a prevailing view – that people from abroad have a very scant and primitive notion of Russia.
- «Foreigners often perceive us as a brute Russian bear»
(DFG, Moscow).
- «They don't know anything, besides that we have Moscow» (DFG, Moscow).
In accordance with the answers to the open-ended questions, a somewhat different picture is beginning to emerge. Respondents were asked: «What cultural developments (historical events, monuments, well-known figures) could you mention as symbols of the Russian state?» Answers didn't include «aboriginal symbols», which dominated the discussion of unofficial symbols in focus groups. Probably this happened because of the appropriate formulations directing a respondent toward the expression of his own opinion («Could you name...»), instead of the description of hackneyed conceptions.
Almost half of all poll participants named the Kremlin (41%) and the architectural ensemble of Red Square among the main historical monuments that are unofficial symbols of Russia (Red Square – 3%, Lenin's Tomb – 2%, St. Basil's Cathedral – 2%).
Here the same general tendency is revealed in the respondents' answers: symbols of Russia are mainly those architectural monuments (or historical figures, scientific and cultural achievements, etc.) that to a great extent prove its powerful grandeur.
In the opinion of the poll participants, among the territories that can be called symbols of Russia, the two capitals of Moscow (26%) and St. Petersburg (17%) are foremost. The notion of Russia as a vast, cold area is less represented in the respondents' answers: 9% of them named Siberia, 4% the Golden Ring, and 2% the whole country.
Among the prominent figures capable of being symbols of the Russian state, the greatest amount of those surveyed named military leaders and political figures. Thus, Peter I was mentioned by 27%; Stalin and Lenin took 15% each, Zhukov 8%, Suvorov and Catherine II, 5% each. President Putin was considered by 5% of the respondents to be among historical persons symbolizing Russia.
In the history of Russia, those surveyed named the Great Patriotic war (29%) and the revolution of 1917 (10%) as symbolic events:
- «The Great Patriotic War, and let it never, ever come back»; «The Second World War and the victory that gained us world-wide prestige»; «the revolution and the Bolsheviks who came to power»; «The October Revolution is the main event."
4% also recalled Peter the Great's rule, which involved a rise in Russia's status.
- «When Russia became a maritime power under Peter I»; «when Peter I cut a window to Europe."
The Patriotic War of 1812 and its greatest battles were named by 3% of respondents:
- «War with the French in 1812»; »the Battle of Borodino»; «Moscow's fight with Napoleon."
Some of the poll participants (7%) mentioned events of the late 1980s to early 1990s: perestroyka, the August putsch, the disintegration of the USSR and the Belovezhsky agreement:
- «The beginning of perestroyka in the late '80s»; «creation of an independent Russia in 1991»; «the collapse of the USSR»; «adoption of the Russian symbols."
The basic cultural and scientific achievements named by respondents represent a rather customary assortment – realms in which we traditionally were «ahead of the whole planet»: space and ballet. The achievements of Russia in the field of space exploration are stressed by 31% of the audience:
- «Space exploration, the first flight»; «Gagarin»; «manned space flight."
By the way, it is generally agreed by the participants of the Moscow focus group that Yury Gagarin is considerably better-known abroad today than Vladimir Lenin:
- «Participant 1: Many people now know nothing about Lenin, but Gagarin is a person well-known to almost everyone...
Moderator: Would they name Lenin, for example?
Participant 2: Not all of them.
Participant 3: They would more likely name Gagarin than Lenin» (DFG, Moscow).
The conception of the Soviet symbols was formed under the unfavorable conditions of a totalitarian system, and was influenced by strict and concentrated propaganda. However, these events, persons, monuments – everything that was proclaimed a symbol as a rule was really significant. This is confirmed by the fact that those symbols these of the former times remain valuable for Russians (it was already shown and will be shown further that people refer to them most often).
Answering a question on achievements in the field of culture and art that serve as symbols of the Russian state (named by 10% of respondents), ballet (4%) and the Bolshoy Theatre (2%) were most mentioned:
- «Ballet is up to the highest standards»; «ballet of the Bolshoi theatre."
Moderator: And what dancers do you mean?
Participant: Baryshnikov.
Moderator: That is to say, those who represent classical ballet, yes?
Participant: Yes. Maris Liepa. Although it was the Soviet Union, all the same he symbolized Russia» (DFG, Moscow).
Russian poets and writers are mentioned in 2% of the comments. Participants of the poll named Pushkin, Lermontov, Yesenin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Gogol. Only 1% of the audience referred to successes achieved in painting and music as informal symbols of Russia.
The respondents also considered our movies (mainly Soviet films) and sports (figure skating and football) as symbols of Russian culture and arts – 1%.
More than 10% of the poll participants mentioned various scientific achievements of Russia, first of all building the A-bomb – 3%.
- «Creation of the nuclear weapons»; «the invention of the atomic bomb."
Discoveries in physics and mathematics were mentioned (4%), including Zhores Alferov, who won the Nobel Prize, and the invention of radio:
- «The invention of radio by Popov»; scientific achievements of Alferov, the Nobel prize winner."
Among Russian scientific developments, people also distinguish Mendeleev's periodic table (1%), and achievements in medical studies (1%):
- «Mendeleev and his periodic system»; «the invention of medicines for plague, fever, etc.»; «operations performed by Fyodorov."
Speaking of the official symbols of Russia, the respondents obviously set them apart from the official symbols of the USSR, whereas in the discussion of unofficial symbols, there was no such division.
It is interesting that the official symbols of the Soviet state (the coat-of-arms and flag), as it follows from the above interviews, appear today as unofficial symbols of Russia.
- «Sickle and hammer – for the foreigners» (DFG, Moscow).
- «I often happen to be abroad, and the real symbol of Russia there is not the tricolor, but the red flag, the hammer and sickle» (DFG, Moscow).
As a whole, despite the various reforms the country underwent over the last decade and the radical change of the basic official symbols of the Russian state system, Russian citizens are sure that notions of Russia abroad are made up of commonplace patterns of the Soviet period.
- «Red banners, stars, the hammer and sickle» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
- «Well, socialism, no doubt» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
- «The Iron Curtain – everyone still remembers it» (DFG, Novosibirsk).
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