Among the most outstanding people of all time and nations as of April 2025, respondents most often named political figures, poets, scientists, and military leaders. Russians consider I. Stalin to be the most outstanding person of all time, as well as V. Putin, V. Lenin, and A. Pushkin. Older respondents more often mentioned figures from the Soviet era, while young people more often mentioned contemporaries or poets and scientists from the pre-Soviet period.
According to Russians, the most outstanding person of all time is I. Stalin – 42% (an increase of 18 percentage points since December 1991). About a third of respondents mentioned V. Putin (31%, an increase of 16 percentage points since May 2021) and V. Lenin (28%, a decrease of 31 percentage points since December 1991). Every fourth named A. Pushkin (a decrease of 10 percentage points since April 2017), every fifth – Peter the Great (a decrease of 32 percentage points since December 1991).
Older respondents (55 years and older), in contrast to young people, more often consider the greatest people of all time and nations to be I. Stalin (47%), V. Lenin (31%), G. Zhukov (19%), and L. Brezhnev (14%). Respondents under 24 more often named V. Putin (37%), A. Pushkin (30%), and I. Newton (8%).
Methodology
The all-Russian Levada Center survey was conducted from April 17 to 23, 2025, on a representative all-Russian sample of the urban and rural population of 1,617 people aged 18 and older in 137 populated areas, 50 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The study is conducted at the respondent’s home using a personal interview. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total. The data array is weighted by gender, age, level of education for each type of settlement ( large cities, medium-sized cities, small towns, villages) within each federal district independently , in accordance with Rosstat data.
The statistical error for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for rates close to 50%
2.9% for rates close to 25% / 75%
2.0% for rates close to 10% / 90%
1.5% for rates close to 5% / 95%
More about the methodology