MOSCOW (Sputnik) — ICM Research questioned over 3,000 people in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. Interviews were conducted from March 20 to April 9, 2015.
In Germany, 17 percent of respondents said that the Soviet army played a major role in the victory, while in France only 8 percent shared the same opinion.
In the past months, a biased interpretation of WWII events has been detailed in Western media and by several politicians, triggering a wave of criticism in Russia.
In January, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Kiev "remembers about the Soviet invasion in Ukraine and Germany." In response, head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of Russia's parliament, Alexei Pushkov, said that this statement insulted the memory of those killed during the war.
In the same month, the Polish foreign minister dismissed Russia's role in the Soviet Army liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, claiming that the camp was liberated by Ukrainians. Moscow said the statement was "nonsense."
In reality, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army, consisting of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian and other soldiers from the Soviet Union, liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
WWII lasted from 1939 to 1945 and engulfed over 80 countries and regions. Up to 70 million people are believed to have died in the conflict. The Soviet Union has lost about 27 million people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in January that all attempts to revise Russia's contribution to the victory in the fight against Nazism during World War II should be viewed as a glorification of Nazi crimes.
The international public opinion research project Sputnik.Polls was launched in 2014, in conjunction with leading British public opinion survey specialists ICM Research. It conducts regular opinion polls to monitor public sentiment toward social, political and cultural issues in Europe and the United States.
