Authors

• Kääriäinen, Kimmo (Church Research Institute)
• Andreenkov, Vladimir (The Russian Academy of Science)

Keywords

family life, gender role, happiness, moral concepts, moral values, occupational life, political attitudes, political movements, quality of life, religious attendance, religious beliefs

Abstract

The survey studied the concepts of religion, morals and values in Russia in the beginning of the 1990s. The respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of work, family, friends or acquaintances, leisure time, politics, and religion. Attitudes towards environmental issues were studied. The respondents were also asked which groups and associations they belonged to, whether they did any voluntary work, and why. They were asked what kind of people they would not have as neighbours.

Self-perceived state of health was surveyed. A number of questions focused on how the respondents felt about life in general, and their feelings experienced during the past few weeks were also examined. Trust in other people, feeling of control over own life, and satisfaction with own life were surveyed. Causes for poverty in Russia were also charted. Relating to work, the respondents were asked what economical and social factors were the most important to them at work. The respondents were also asked what role should owners, the state, and employees have in the ownership of an enterprise, and in choosing management.

Several questions dealt with morals and the meaning of life, the respondents' religiosity, religious attendance, and attitude towards the church. In addition, the respondents were asked about their family relations and the meaning of family in their lives, and whether the respondents had the same attitude towards religion, morals, politics and sexuality as their spouse and parents. Relating to marriage, the respondents were asked how important they felt faithfulness, material goods, belonging to the same social stratum, mutual respect, same political views, sexual satisfaction, children, and sharing the chores at home to be. Relating to children, the respondents were asked the actual and desired number of children in the family, the attitude towards child-rearing, conceptions of the relationship between parents and children, and what kind of values should parents instill in their children. Furthermore, the respondents were asked about their attitudes towards working mothers, and the roles of spouses in marriage.

There were several questions about attitudes towards politics and political participation. Moreover, the respondents were asked about their conceptions of the country's future and social development. Trust in institutions was studied by asking how much the respondents trust the church, armed forces, judicial system, the press, the police, trade unions, the political system as a whole, etc. On the other hand, the respondents were asked how they support various social movements like environmental movement, movement against nuclear energy and women's movement. In relation to their moral conceptions, the respondents were asked about several things, for instance, about using public transport without a ticket, using drugs, prostitution, suicide, and euthanasia. The respondents' conceptions about citizens of various countries were also asked about.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, age, education, occupational group, occupational status, industry of employment, type of employer, size of the organisation, economic activity and occupational status of the household head, type of neighbourhood in childhood, number of household members, nationality of the respondent, spouse, and the parents, the respondent's political inclination, membership in a political party, political party preference, region of residence, and size of the municipality of residence.