When asked to choose
a country that played a key role in defeating Nazism during the Second World
War from between the United Kingdom, the USSR, the United States and the
options ‘other’ and ‘I don’t know,’ only 15 percent of respondents in a recent
Sputnik.Polls survey opted for the USSR.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The majority of respondents in the United States (79 percent), France (58 percent) and half of those in Germany (50 percent) said that the US Army played a pivotal role in the victory over Nazism.
In addition, more than a half of Britons (59
percent) think that their country led the fight against Nazism, while only
11 percent named the United States and 15 percent mentioned the USSR. This data
comes from an survey carried
out by Ifop, a renowned French market research and polling agency, and the
United Kingdom’s Populus for Sputnik News Agency and Radio.
Compared to other countries, Germany had the most
respondents who recognized the USSR as the main force in combatting
Nazism (24 percent). However, the respondent’s geographic location
within the country proved to greatly affected their opinion
on the matter: only 16 percent of Germans in the western part
of the country acknowledge the USSR’s role, compared to 55 percent
in the east and 35 percent in Berlin. Respondents in the US and
France were the most reluctant to recognize the Soviet contribution
to combating Nazism with 7 and 12 percent, respectively.
To a varying degree from country to country,
some 14 to 15 percent of respondents were unable to answer the
question as to who played the key role in liberating Europe
from Nazism during the Second World War. Another 1 to 2 percent
chose the ‘other’ option, presumably assuming that some other country, or no
single army, did the job.
The perception of the USSR’s role in Europe
has changed dramatically over the last 70 years. Years of opinion
polls carried out by Ifop, France’s oldest polling institution, bear
witness to this. In fact, the share of Parisians who believe that the
USSR contributed the most to the victory over Nazism declined
from 61 percent in 1944 to 20 percent in 2004.
All in all, according to various estimates,
the Red Army freed almost 50 percent of the states that make
up present-day Europe, without counting the European part
of Russia, and suffered more casualties than any other force
in the war. The Red Army liberated a total of 120 million people
in 16 contemporary European countries. Another six countries were freed
by the Red Army in conjunction with its allies.
In the United Kingdom and the United States, the survey
was conducted by Populus, a major British research agency,
between April 15 and 21, 2016. In France and Germany, it was carried
out by Ifop, France’s oldest polling institution, between April 14
and 18, 2016. The samples used were representative of the population
with respect to gender, age and geography. The polls have a ± 3.1%
margin of error with a 95% confidence level.
About the Sputnik.Polls Project
The international public opinion project was inaugurated
in January 2015, in partnership with the leading research
companies such as Populus, Ifop and Forsa. The project organizes regular
surveys in the United States and Europe on the most sensitive social
and political issues.
Sputnik (sputniknews.com) is a news
agency and radio network with multimedia news hubs in dozens
of countries. Sputnik broadcasts through its websites in over 30
languages, as well as analog and digital radio, mobile apps and
social media. Sputnik newswires, available by subscription, run
around the clock in English, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese.
Source: Sputnik News 05-05-3-2016
