№ 6 - 2006
Oslon A.A.
Megapolls for Russia’s Population (The “Georating” Project)

To learn Russian citizens’ opinion on this or that question, it is sufficient, as is known, to have a poll among 1,5 thousand respondents – within a representative sample. However, nation-wide polls of such, traditional format do not admit making out inter-regional divergence in the views, in the sentiments, in value orientations. Therefore since July 2003 the “Public Opinion” Foundation has been from time to time conducting polls of a different type – among 500 respondents within a representative sample in each of some 62 to 69 RF subjects simultaneously. Within the framework of the described project that has received the conditional appellation of “Georating”, there have already been carried out 12 megapolls whose results have made possible the creation of hundreds of socio-geographical maps of Russia. In the material published in the present issue of the journal, the initial idea of the project, its main particularities and subject-matter are characterized. The text is supplemented with a compact set of maps whose selection was meant to take into account professional interests of the Polis’ readers.