Although only 49 percent of Russians know the words to the national anthem, that is still 10 percentage points higher than in 2009, the state-run VTsIOM pollster said in a survey on Wednesday.
“The number of those who can recall the first lines of Russia’s national anthem has risen from 39 percent in 2009 to 49 percent in 2012. A total of 32 percent do not remember the text of the anthem. Most of them are elderly Russians (44 percent),” VTsIOM said.
A total of 88 respondents can describe the state emblem, while 68 percent correctly named the colors on the national flag and their order.
The survey was conducted on August 18-19 and involved 1,600 respondents from 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is below 3.4 percent.