Levada began his career under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who allowed him to carry out the country's first comprehensive public opinion surveys.
Purged under Leonid Brezhnev, Levada returned to prominence under Mikhail Gorbachev, establishing the All-Union Center For the Study Of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), which tracked the public mood as the Soviet Union collapsed and in its aftermath.
Levada died at his workplace in Moscow, of an unspecified heart ailment.
(Interfax, gazeta.ru)
Democracy In Russia
Demonstrators in Moscow carry a coffin with a television in it to protest government control over broadcasting (TASS file photo)
DO RUSSIANS LIKE THEIR GOVERNMENT? During a briefing at RFE/RL's Washington office on November 15, Richard Rose, director of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen, discussed the results of 14 surveys he has conducted since 1992 on Russian public opinion about democracy and the country's development. He discussed the implications of these opinions for relations with the West and for Russia's 2008 presidential election.
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Listen to the complete discussion (about 42 minutes):Real Audio Windows Media
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