Yuri Levada

Yuri Aleksandrovich Levada (Russian Юрий Александрович Левада; born April 24, 1930 in Vinnytsia, † November 16, 2006 in Moscow) was a Russian sociologist and political scientist.

Life

Yuri Levada obtained a university degree in 1952 at the Philosophical Faculty of the Moscow State University. In 1966 he was habilitated in philosophy with a thesis on the sociological problems of religion. From 1956 to 1988 Levada worked at the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

In the 1960s, Levada taught as the first Soviet Professor Sociology at the journalism faculty of Moscow State University. This Levada came by various statements in trouble. In one of his lectures Levada said that tanks could not change ideologies, which alluded to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He also criticized the fact that only a few people would read the long article in Pravda. Pravda responded quickly and denounced the scientists. In 1969, the professorial status was withdrawn because of " ideological errors in his lectures ." The "Institute for concrete social research ", where Levada was responsible for the theory and methodology sector had to undergo a political cleansing and was subsequently closed.

Then Levada began to work for the economic- mathematical main institution. Later he founded a methodological seminar, in which he brought together the supporters of different scientific fields. This seminar was regarded as a semi-legal institution. 1988 helped him to the core of the employees of his former employer and members of his seminar in his work for the opinion research institute VTsIOM.

" Analitika " elected him to the person of the year 2004 on the website of Rambler.

Died in 2006, Yuri Levada. He was buried in the cemetery Trojekurowo.

Work at VTsIOM and Levada Center

Between 1988 and 1992, Levada was the department chairman for theoretical research in VTsIOM headed by Tatjana Zaslavskaia. In 1994 he became chief editor of the journal " Social and economic change. Observation of public opinion ' ( Russian: « Социальные и экономические перемены: мониторинг общественного мнения "). Since 1991 VTsIOM has published a number of research about the Russian presidential election, the elections to the Duma elections and the legislative and executive branches in different regions of the country.

In the spring of 1993, the research program was started "Observation of economic and social changes " under the guidance of Tatiana Zaslavskaia. This program was based on regular sociological research ( six mass surveys in the company per year). It created data for long-term analysis of the connection of all social classes in Russia with changes in the fundamental areas of social and economic life of a society.

In August 2003, decided the Russian Ministry of property relations to replace the management of VTsIOM by government employees who had no relation to the earlier work of VTsIOM. In return, all employees announcing your activities and led them under the name " VTsIOM A" continue. The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation banned the use of this new name.

Since March 2004, the company continues to operate under the new name Levada Center. It results mainly opinion and survey research in the fields of sociology, economics, psychology and marketing through. The Levada Center publishes an annual yearbook, entitled Public opinion in Russian Russian and English. Contents of this book were often published in the past in various media.

German -language publications

• The Soviet people from 1989 to 1991. Sociogram of disintegration. ISBN 978-3423029643