Mack Whitehead and Dr. Tony Brown, Department of Humanities
The goal of the project was to establish correlation between a Russian person’s demographics, their emotional views and reactions regarding nuclear threats in 1999 and 2012. Research will include the interrupting of the data that is already present, and research will include looking into the political establishments in 1999. The benefits of the research are: establishing an understanding between nations and being able to view the post-Soviet Russian mindset concerning nuclear war.
The data that was already present, and was translated from Russian into English showed interesting results. 214 people took the survey. Literally half (112) feared a nuclear war and the other half didn’t. 43 % of men feared a war and 58% of women feared a war. Of the men surveyed, 55% with high education had no fear of a nuclear war, and 45% with high education feared a nuclear war. 42% of females with high education did not fear a nuclear war, and 58% did fear nuclear war. 65% of men with no education or low education feared a nuclear war, and 35 did not. For the women with low or no education, 39% did not fear, and 60% did. This shows little correlation.
Most of those surveyed (about 90%) said that America would have started a nuclear war (as opposed to USSR) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and in the case of nuclear war there would be no victor. About 60% said that USSR was most powerful, and about 40% said America was most powerful country. 98% of those surveyed said that only America’s political leaders were the threat, and not American citizens.
The most interesting result of the survey to me was the overwhelming response of ecology being a main concern of a result of nuclear war. I suspected that major loss of life or destruction of infrastructure would be a greater concern. This response has persuaded me to more thoroughly understand the reason. I have concluded that 1999 was the begginging of a green movement around the globe. And, obviously a nuclear detonation would produce horrible ecological problems.
In conclusion, a Russian person’s demographics, their emotional views and reactions regarding nuclear threats have no correlation. The fear of nuclear war most likely lies much deeper than superficial demographics. In order to find a correlation, a much more in depth survey would need to be given to many more participants.