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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Who is to Blame

We've been running a poll for some time now asking readers who is most to blame for the rise of dictatorship in Russia. Nearly 1,400 votes have now been cast in the poll, so it's appropriate to take a look at some preliminary results. 20 different possible causes were offered to choose from in the poll; here they are ranked according to which the readers think is most likely (the choice is followed by the percentage selecting it and then the total number of votes received):

(1) The People of Russia 32% (446)

(2) The KGB 14% (199)

(3) Western Governments 7% (97)

(4) Russian "Oligarchs" 6% (80)

(5) Communism 4% (62)

(6) Fate 4% (53)

(7) TIE: Boris Yeltsin 3% (46) -- The USA 3% (46)

(9) Capitalism 3% (44)

(10) NATO 3% (36)

(11) Western Apologists for Russia 3% (36)

(12) TIE: Western Critics of Russia 2% (34) -- Bad Luck 2% (34)

(14) Western Media 2% (33)

(15) George Bush Jr. 2% (31)

(16) Bill Clinton 2% (30)

(17) The USSR 2% (27)

(18) Russian Media 2% (26)

(19) George Bush Sr. 2% (22)

(20) Mikhail Gorbachev 1% (13)

3 comments:

Aris Katsaris said...

When a villain uses a idiot for evil ends, the villain is to blame for his villainy and the idiot for his idiocy, but I'm not sure that the plain question "who to blame" is meaningful at all.

The manipulator and the manipulated are to be blamed for different things.

E.g. if I think that the KGB used the Russian media to promote among the people of Russia a destructive ideology descended partly from the communist-era USSR era and partly from the Czars, should I be replying "KGB", "Russian Media", "Communism", "USSR", "Czars" or the "Russian People" as "who to blame"?

OstapR said...

I notice you listed individual 3 American leaders, but only 2 Russians. And you included the current president of USA. Why not include Putin?

Anonymous said...

I don't know why we don't blame Czar Nikolai II because if had done his job better, there might never have been a USSR in the first place!