History

Yuri Levada Analytical Center is a team of specialists which was formed in 1988-1989. At that time, it was called the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) and it was part of the USSR Ministry of Labour and the Trade Unions Council (VTsSPS). It was the first Centre conducting mass surveys on representative samples of the adult population of the country.  

In 2003 all the staff members quit their jobs in VCIOM and went to work in VCIOM Analytical Service (VCIOM-A), which is at present The Analytical Centre of Yury Levada ( Levada-Center ). Levada-Center is a research organization that was formed largely as an amalgamation of several research teams that used to work with T.I. Zaslavskaya, B.A. Grushin, V.M. Rutgaizer, and Yu.A. Levada.

The Director of the Center  Professor Yury Aleksandrovich Levada, PhD, is the author of many scientific articles on the theory and methodology of sociology, sociology of religion, social anthropology. He is the author of the first course of lectures on sociology in the USSR (MGU, 1967-69), and a number of books: “Articles on Sociology” (1993), "There is an opinion "(1990), "The Soviet Person "(1993), "From Opinions to Understanding" (2000). The book “The Soviet Person” was published in Russian, English and German. Yu.A. Levada was the director of VCIOM from February 1992 to September 2003.

After all the transformations, which did not in fact change the status of the researchers’ team, on 6 August 2003 the RF Ministry for Property Relations came to the decision to transform the FSUE VCIOM into OAO “All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre”, which was to result in control over the work of the Centre by government structures and individuals who had had no part in VCIOM research work before.

In this situation, all the members of VCIOM staff went to work to the Analytical Service of VCIOM (VCIOM-A).

Since March 2004 the team has been working under a new name – The Analytical Center of Yury Levada (Levada-Center).

Levada-Center continues the research programmes started by its team in the 1990s – 2000s.

Since 1991 the team that began its work in VCIOM has conducted a series of surveys before the elections of the Russian President, State Duma members, legislative and executive bodies in the regions of the country. The results of these surveys have always been close to the official results, which has been pointed out by representatives of the professional community more than once.

In the spring of 1993, the Center launched the most difficult and important research programme – «Monitoring of Economic and Social Changes» developed under the direction of T.I. Zaslavskaya. Based on regular sociological surveys (6 mass surveys per year), this programme provides material for the analysis of long-term files with sociological data on the attitudes of all the population strata in Russia to the changes in the main spheres of the social and economic life of the society. Levada-Center continues conducting surveys and doing data analysis for the project.

One of the largest projects done by Levada-Centre is the study “The Soviet Person”. At present the specialists do not only have the possibility of doing comparative analysis of the four large waves (1989, 1994 и 1999, 2003) but they also have numerous data of the “Monitoring” survey enabling them to identify the main trends in the social development of Russia’s society over the past 15 years.

In 1989, VCIOM researchers conducted the first study of consumer preferences. At present, Levada-Center does a wide range of marketing surveys using different research techniques.

Levada-Center publishes the informational-analytical journal "PUBLIC OPINION BULLETIN. Data. Analysis. Discussions ", which develops the concept of “MONITORING OF PUBLIC OPINION” published by the team of VCIOM specialists for 10 years – from 1993 to August 2003 (## 1-66) – 6 times a year. Levada-Center also publishes the yearbook “Public Opinion” in Russian and English, and subject journals. It also has publications in different media.