Sociological research is very important for identifying changes taking place in society. One of the most famous organizations in the post-Soviet space that conducts sociological and marketing research is the Yuri Levada Analytical Center, or Levada Center.
The Levada Center is named after the Russian sociologist Yuri Levada, who died in 2006. It is a non-governmental research organization that conducts both its own and commissioned research. The center enjoys great prestige, its research is an example of a strictly scientific approach to the study of the processes taking place in society and the economy.
The emergence of the Levada Center is inextricably linked with VTsIOM, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, which from 1992 to 2003 was headed by Yuri Aleksandrovich Levada. In 2003, the company's board of directors decided to replace Levada with Valery Fedorov. Levada left the center, followed by many leading researchers, creating an independent service VTsIOM-A. However, the new team was prohibited from using the abbreviation "VTsIOM" in the name of their organization, so they began to use the name "Yuri Levada's Analytical Center", or "Levada Center".
Currently, Levada Center is one of the leading Russian organizations engaged in sociological and marketing research. In particular, among the latest research by the center, one can name a survey on the level of confidence of Russians in Vladimir Putin - according to the data obtained, for the first time he fell below 50%. Other studies carried out by the center include the study of the attitude of Russians to police reform, the study of the middle class, the use of drugs and alcohol by schoolchildren, education problems, the development of nanotechnology, the prospects for civil society in Russia and many other topics.
"Levada-Center" publishes the journal "Public Opinion Bulletin", which publishes many of the results of the research carried out by the center. The magazine is published 4 times a year. The center also has its own website, where you can find information about the latest polls conducted by the center and other interesting information.
