Reburial of Russian General Denikin`s Remains

The reburial of general Denikin?s remains was amply discussed in the media. Most poll participants knew of this event (59% said they knew, 20% said they had heard something about it). 41% expressed a positive attitude towards it, while a negative attitude was voiced by 21%; the remaining respondents either felt indifferent about this fact (30%) or found it hard to evaluate it.

While substantiating their point of view, about two thirds of the reburial supporters said that every person, no matter who, must be buried in his fatherland ("a person belongs where he has lived"; "his roots and home are in Russia" - 20% of those who answered the open-ended question) or spoke about respecting the defunct person?s will ("his will would be fulfilled"; "a will of the deceased is sacred" - 7%). Much more seldom (11%) did respondents refer to Denikin?s historic role and to his deserts as an important military leader and patriot who was "devoted to Russia".

The opponents of reburial, too, explained their opinion by a negative attitude towards Denikin and his historic role comparatively rarely: "a tsarist officer, he was injurious to the Soviet Power"; "many people died by the Whites? hands" (4%). Three times as often were heard arguments of a completely different kind: respondents opposed the very practice of reburial saying that transferring remains is pointless, tactless, and even blasphemous ("a body must be buried once"; "why trouble the bones, trouble the ashes"; "it?s just not Christian somehow" - 13%).

Such a reaction on the part of Russians to the reburial of general Denikin?s remains makes it clear that most of our fellow citizens today are neither inclined to idealize nor to condemn the participants of the Patriotic War on both sides of the barricades: no matter Red or White. Correspondingly, 38% of respondents share the view that "nobody was either right or wrong" in that war, while 27% cannot answer the question as to who was right. However, every one of three respondents holds quite a well-defined, by no means "equidistant", position in this historical debate: 23% think that the Red were right, 11%, the White. Among the more elderly respondents (55 and above), there were more people thinking the Red were right (38%) than those thinking that no one (29%) or that the White were right (only 6%).

On the other hand, when dealing with the opposing sides? subjective honesty and responsibility, and no longer with historical righteousness, the proportion of assessments changes somewhat. The "advantage" of the Red vanishes: 21% of respondents think that the Red were more concerned with Russia?s destiny, while 19% think the White were more concerned. 36% of respondents suppose that both the Red and the White were equally concerned, and 9% think neither the White nor the Red were concerned. Elderly respondents say much more often that the Red were more concerned (34%) than the White (12%). What?s particularly curious here: young people ascribe concern about Russia?s destiny equally to the Red (18%) and to the White (17%), whereas middle-aged respondents (36 to 54), i.e. people who reached their maturity in the Brezhnev times, believe that the Red were more concerned much more rarely compared to the opposite view (15% and 24% respectively).


FOM

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