Experts from the Center for the Development of Humanitarian Technologies “New Era” conducted a study “The Image of Moscow among Youth”

Modern Moscow is most strongly associated among the capital’s youth with phenomena related to power, history and money. Experts from the New Era Center for the Development of Humanitarian Technologies came to these conclusions based on the results of the study “The Image of Moscow among Young People” (available from Kommersant). Among the images that evoked such associations, respondents named Red Square, the Crimean Spring rally and concert, and Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Young people predominantly associate the landscape of the “ideal capital of the future” with development, freedom and tranquility, and consider the Moscow City business district and the “Night of Museums” event to be symbols of the future.

The study, conducted as part of the Thought Laboratories project using projective focus groups, involved 100 Muscovites under the age of 25: students, university graduates and young scientists. Respondents were offered 15 series of phenomena (sculpture, song, color, politician, historical figure, etc.) and asked to choose those that are associated with Moscow now or with the ideal Moscow of the future. For each image, respondents named from one to three tag associations (freedom, development, strength, etc.). As in a similar study on the image of Russia (see “Kommersant” dated August 10, 2023), the non-standard methodology is designed to “cut off the need of respondents to give a socially approved answer,” the authors indicated.

When describing present-day Moscow, respondents most often chose phenomena related to power (95 mentions), history (49), money (48), speed (37), development (36), movement (32) and beauty (31). The first seven tags describing the ideal Moscow of the future include development (115 mentions), freedom (95), tranquility (65), future (47), technology (42), culture and peace (41 mentions each).

Today’s Moscow is associated with the monument to Minin and Pozharsky (14%), and the Moscow of the future is associated with the monument to space explorers (22%). Among the locations when describing the current capital, the leaders are Red Square (23%), Stalin’s high-rise buildings (14), Moscow City and the zoo (8% each). Among respondents, the future Moscow is associated with Moscow City (24.7%), creative spaces (18%) and VDNKh (10.1%). Of the events related to the modern capital, respondents most often named the “Crimean Spring” rally-concert (18%), the “Immortal Regiment” processions (12%) and gastronomic festivals (10%). The top 3 associations with the Moscow of the future in the event category are “Night of Museums” (17%), fireworks festival (12%) and opposition rally (8%). They are also followed by the gastronomic festival (7%).

Among historical figures, Moscow is now associated with Stalin, Ivan the Terrible and Peter I (21, 19 and 7% respectively), followed by Peter Stolypin, Nicholas II and Mikhail Gorbachev. The Moscow of the future is associated among respondents with the images of Peter I, Catherine II and Stolypin (24, 11 and 10%). Of the current politicians, both current and future Moscow are associated with Sergei Sobyanin (37% now and 16% in the future). He is accompanied in modern Moscow by the late founder of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky (16%), journalist Ksenia Sobchak (10%) and the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina (7%). The researchers deliberately did not include the name of Vladimir Putin in the list of proposed options, because they understood that his figure would become dominant in this case, but the president was still “written into the ballot” by 5% of respondents. The top 5 associations with an ideal capital of the future, together with the current mayor, included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (14%), the same Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the late oppositionist Boris Nemtsov (12% each), as well as Irina Khakamada, who retired from big politics (10%) . However, the most common answer in the category was “Other” (18%), which collected options not mentioned by the authors (including Vladimir Putin and even former US President Donald Trump).

Among the industries with which the image of modern Moscow is associated are banks and finance (18%), transport and the service sector (15% each). In the future, the capital is associated with science and education, IT and culture (28, 27 and 18% respectively). Of the animals, the capital is now most often associated with the octopus (20%), and in the future – with the eagle (19%). Of the musical compositions associated with Moscow, “Moscow Never Sleeps” by DJ Smash was most often named. Among the symbols of the modern city, the “Rings of Moscow” (MCC, MCD, BKL; 22%) were mentioned, and among the symbols of the future were the Phoenix (28%), Kremlin stars and a space rocket (12% each).

“Many tags in the images of modern Moscow and the ideal Moscow of the future have something in common, that is, much of what young people see today, they would like to see in the future,” New Era CEO Alexander Shabaltin commented to Kommersant on the results of the study. He said it was important for young people to “continue to develop the city in terms of technology” while preserving “its history and grandeur.” But young people don’t want to take the “spirit of chasing money” and “self-interest in general” into the future with them, the expert notes: “They would like to see Moscow more calm, friendly and peaceful.”

Grigory Leiba, Ivan Tyazhlov