Levada Analytical Center (Levada-Center) is a Russian non-governmental research organization. The center conducts regular monitoring of Russian public opinion, and also conducts research projects on order. Levada-Center conducts research for companies, universities, NGOs in Russia and across the world, as well as for international organizations.
The Center is guided by the principles of WAPOR and ESOMAR. The staff of the center bring together experts in the fields of sociology, political science, economics, psychology, market research, public opinion polls and organization of data processing. The research team has been conducting regular public opinion polls across the country since 1988. Levada-Center has a network of regional offices and cooperates with centers of public opinion research in the CIS and Baltic countries. The Center is a corporate member of the European research association ESOMAR and the Russian research association OIROM.
Levada-Center publishes “The Russian Public Opinion Herald”, a bi-annual academic journal. The journal presents analysis of contemporary Russian society and its institutions. The journal is open for discussions and polemics. The Center’s leading experts publish essays in journals of social sciences, regularly take part in scientific conferences and give public lectures. Polling results and expertise of the Center’s staff is broadly covered by national and international media.
The Center is named after the Russian sociologist Yuri Levada (1930-2006).
The board of directors:
- Abel Aganbegyan, Head of the Board
- Mikhail Dmitriev
- Lev Gudkov, academic supervisor of the Levada-Center
- Ludmila Khakhulina
- Marina Krasilnikova
- Elena Nemirovskaya
- Kirill Rogov
- Denis Volkov, director of the Levada-Center
History. The team of the Levada-Center began to take shape in 1987 in the All-Union Center for Public Opinion Research (VTSIOM) under the leadership of academician Tatyana Zaslavskaya (1927-2013). Yuri Levada (1930-2006) replaced her as a director of VTSIOM in 1992. The network of sociological centers in the Soviet republics and regions of the Russian Federation was set up in 1987-1988. Since November 1988 national representative surveys have been conducted regularly. In 2003 the team established the independent Levada-Center, and Yuri Levada become its first director. The Center continues research projects initiated in the 90s, as well as conducting new studies of Russian society. In 2016, the Russian Ministry of Justice placed the Levada Center on the register of NGOs performing the functions of foreign agents. The center disagrees with this decision and is trying to challenge it in court.
