NOT EVERYONE WILL BE COUNTED

GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING FOR THIS WEEK'S NATIONAL CENSUS URGES CITIZENS TO "MAKE THEIR MARK IN RUSSIAN HISTORY" BUT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF CENSUSES IN RUSSIA, THE GOVERNMENT HAS FACED THE PROBLEM OF WIDESPREAD PUBLIC MISTRUST AND EVEN OPEN SABOTAGE OF THE CENSUS CAMPAIGN.

For the first time in the history of censuses in Russia, the government has faced the problem of widespread public mistrust and even open sabotage of the census campaign. First, Russians fear to let strangers into their apartments - not only in large cities, but also in remote villages.

Second, people fear that information about them might fall into the hands of criminal organizations, or the law enforcement and tax agencies. Of course, we are being told that the state will keep this information confidential, but Russian citizens prefer not to reveal too much. Besides, along with the basic census form of 11 questions, 25% of the population will be offered another one - asking them to indicate their sources of income. Who will voluntarily confess that to the state?

Those to whom the future of the country actually belongs, i.e. people aged 18-27, are not eager to be recorded in the annals of Russian history either - because young men in this age group are liable for the military draft. Young men and their parents still fear district police inspectors because of the recent campaign, when employees of military commandants' offices and police detained draft-dodgers in the streets and forced them to enlist.

Another category of people who do not desire to meet the census-takers are otherwise law-abiding citizens who have to work in Moscow rather than in their native provincial towns, because of the poor economic situation in their hometowns. These people do not wish to be found in the lodgings they have to rent, since they have experience of been detained and even placed in detention cells several times for not having an official Moscow residency permit (although there is no law prohibiting people from moving around freely in their own country).

Some people do not intend to cooperate with the state census on principle: they just reciprocate the state's attitude toward them. It is noteworthy that official sources stress that such people are poorly educated and therefore unable to understand the importance of the census. However, our sources indicate otherwise: many people who are avoiding the census have college degrees, but lack a Moscow residence permit. As for "foreigners", i.e. former Soviet citizens who are now citizens of Belarus, Ukraine, and so on - getting them to cooperate is out of the question. Thus, one of the aims of the census - to get an idea of the size of diasporas in Russia - is unlikely to be fulfilled.

Among the other signs of the times is bargaining with the state. People in the Moscow Region say: "Why hasn't the central heating been switched on, in October? First switch on our central heating, and then we'll consent to fill out a census form." Residents of the town of Belogorsk, in the Amur Region, have managed to have their electricity supplies restored, which had been disconnected for a long time: this was their condition for participation in the census. However, they now fear that after the census is over, their power will be cut off again. In one town in the Ulyanovsk Region, workers at a textile factory that closed down some time ago say they will agree to participate in the census only in exchange for jobs. In the Urals, residents of a remote village demand that a bus route to the district center should be
introduced. There are many such cases around Russia. Isn't this also a way of "making your mark in Russian history"?

(Translated by Kirill Frolov)