Lenin and Stalin in Contemporary Russia: What the Data Actually Shows

More than thirty years after the counterrevolutionary upheaveals and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, public attitudes in today's Russia toward its most emblematic leaders remain remarkably stable —and, in some respects, increasingly favorable. 

 

The available polling data, primarily from the Levada Center, does not support the idea that decades of fierce anti-Soviet and anti-communist discourse have fundamentally reshaped mass perceptions.

 

The most recent large-scale survey (April 2025) shows that Joseph Stalin is named by 42% of respondents as one of the most outstanding figures in history, while Vladimir Lenin is cited by 28%. Importantly, Stalin’s figure has increased by 18 percentage points since 1991, indicating a long-term upward trajectory rather than decline.

Beyond rankings, evaluative data confirms the same pattern. According to the most recent Levada-based reporting, 67% of Russians assess Lenin’s historical role positively, marking the highest level recorded since 2006, when the corresponding figure stood at 40%. This represents a 27-point increase over less than two decades, pointing not to erosion but to consolidation of Lenin’s image.

The case of Stalin shows an even clearer shift. In the 1990s, negative attitudes were dominant, but longitudinal data demonstrates a steady reversal. By 2019, over 50% of respondents expressed a positive view of Stalin, while approximately 70% evaluated his role in history as “rather positive.” This trajectory has been consistent: favorable views rose from about 46% in 2017 to over 50% in 2019, with later surveys maintaining similarly high levels.

These attitudes are closely connected to broader perceptions of the Soviet past. According to Levada-based surveys, a majority of Russians consistently express positive evaluations of the USSR, associating it with social stability, justice, and state responsibility toward ordinary people. In some surveys, 59% state that the Soviet system “took care of ordinary people,” while large shares also emphasize stability, legitimacy, and social guarantees. In parallel, other data shows that a clear majority would prefer the Soviet system over the current one, and up to 75% describe the Soviet period as the greatest in the country’s history, indicating a broader historical framework within which Lenin and Stalin are evaluated.

Taken together, these findings are consistent across different types of questions—historical rankings, direct evaluations, and broader assessments of the Soviet experience. Lenin maintains a stable two-thirds positive majority with a rising trend, while Stalin’s image has undergone a measurable and sustained revaluation, moving from predominantly negative in the early post-Soviet years to broadly positive or balanced today.

What emerges from the data is not fluctuation but continuity combined with partial recovery. Despite decades of ideological pressure, both figures retain a central and resilient position in Russian public opinion, embedded within a wider positive reassessment of the Soviet period itself.

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