Boris Kagarlitsky: ‘It is clear why citizens of Kazan are more optimistic’

Positive mindset

Kazan became the leader of the rating of citizens’ positive expectations in 2020. According to PromRating’s research, precisely residents of the Tatarstan capital have the most positive mindset for the new year. 57,7% of the respondents expect something good from 2020, a survey reads.

Kazan is followed by Stavropol (52,9%), Vladivostok (48,8%), Kaliningrad (45,2%), Krasnoyarsk (44,4%). Makhachkala (44%), Saint Petersburg (39,3%), Moscow (38,8%), Yekaterinburg (38,6%) and Chelyabinsk (38%) made it to the top 10. Ufa ranks 11^th with 37%.

Citizens of Krasnodar (35,6%), Voronezh (30,9%) and Khabarovsk (20%) have the least positive expectations of the new year. It is noted that over 6,000 people participated in the survey. The research was done from 1 December 2019 to 10 January 2020.

Moreover, residents of Russia in general consider that 2020 will be better than 2019, according to Levada-Center that conducted a survey on Russians’ expectations. 63% of the respondents made a positive forecast for the year. At the same time, 66% of the surveyed people said there might be new scandals and dismissals in power, while 45% expected mass protests.

Not bad economic indicators, developed cultural environment

Director of the Institute of Globalisation and Social Movements Boris Kagarlitsky in general is critical about such sociological research. According to him, answers depend on the question that was formulated. He considers that it is almost impossible to measure such problems quantitatively. Also, he agreed with the results for Kazan.

“Kazan is one of the most comfortable cities to live in,” the sociologist comments on the survey’s data for Realnoe Vremya. “It is a very balanced city. Kazan is big enough to have positive features that are characteristic of big cities, but it is not too big to have those problems that are characteristic of metropolises. We see quite good economic indicators of Tatarstan in general and Kazan as the capital, the cultural environment is quite developed. It is quite clear why people like Kazan and why citizens of Kazan are more optimistic.”

As for the Russian capital, Kagarlitsky offers to divide Muscovites who have moved there in the last five years and those citizens who have been living in the city for quite a while.

“People move to Moscow mainly not from Kazan, Saint Petersburg or Nizhny Novgorod but depressive regions. This is why any living conditions, situation and salary in Moscow is considered as positive. In 5-7 years when people get used to Moscow life, they understand that Moscow is the least liveable Russian city because its only advantage is that it isn’t the centre of economic depression,” the expert stressed.