What Do They Think of Russia?
Pitzer faculty receive Department of Defense grant to study the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on public opinion in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $396,000 grant to a project led by Pitzer faculty to study public perceptions and attitudes to Russia and its invasion of Ukraine in Georgia and Kazakhstan.
“Decolonial developments in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and North Asia” is a two-year project funded through the DoD’s Minerva Research Initiative that will employ state-of-the-art survey methodology to study public opinion in two societies that were once ruled by Moscow.
For Sociology Professor Azamat Junisbai, who serves as the project’s co-lead investigator, this study is a pathbreaking effort to shed light on the developments in a part of the world that many—if not most—in the West don’t understand.
“How does Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impact attitudes about the Soviet era in societies that were once part of the Soviet Union? How does the war affect views about contemporary Russia and Ukraine? What do ordinary people think about the war?” he said. “These questions have not yet been systematically examined with high quality nationally representative survey data. The project aims to address this gap.”
Beyond scholarly contributions, the project’s findings may have implications for geopolitics and statecraft as many former Soviet republics continue striving to maintain their independence against a continuing Russian threat.
“This project is a very pragmatic attempt to capture shifts in public perception and the ways in which members of different demographic groups respond. It is in the best interests of the U.S. to know what the responses of people there are,” explained Junisbai, whose scholarship and media commentary examines Russia’s historical legacy in Central Asia and asserts the need for decolonization.
Joining Junisbai is co-lead investigator Professor Erica Marat of Washington, D.C.-based National Defense University and Pitzer colleague Professor Erich Steinman, who also serves as an investigator on the project.

A state-of-the-art methodology
The Department of Defense announced its selection of Pitzer’s team and other university faculty teams to pursue social science research this summer through the FY 2023 Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership, a program under the department’s Minerva Research Initiative.
Junisbai anticipates that the nationally representative surveys will yield quality data that will help inform U.S. foreign policy and highlight the broader impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Junisbai said that face-to-face interviews with respondents selected using multi-stage stratified random sampling will allow them to see how age, language, gender, education, income, area of residence, and patterns of media consumption shape attitudes.
The planned sample sizes of 2,000 participants in each country will also help ensure that the collected data accurately reflects national trends in both societies. Project funding will also enable Junisbai and his colleagues to travel to the region to conduct interviews, focus groups, and other follow-ups.
An invasion as a catalyst
The urgent need for a better understanding of decolonial developments in societies that were once ruled by Moscow became evident to Junisbai, who was born and raised in Kazakhstan, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The invasion set in motion unprecedented developments in societies with a history of Russian rule. Discussions about colonialism and decolonization taking place on the margins in countries formerly under Moscow’s control, non-Slavic parts of modern Russia, and diaspora communities outside Russia have increasingly spilled into the mainstream.
During a presentation of this project to Pitzer faculty earlier this month, Junisbai explained that for him personally the full-scale invasion “was a watershed moment that triggered a lot of soul-searching and reflection about the Soviet period, today’s Russia, the role of the Russian language, and many other things.”
While on sabbatical in Almaty in 2023, he conducted a limited number of preliminary interviews about the subject but understood that a much larger and more representative sample was needed. When Professor Marat from the National Defense University approached him about the possibility of a joint application for a Minerva Research Initiative grant, the project was born.

Imperialism and cultural erasure
Junisbai points out that for many outside observers, Soviet rule has embodied the ideal of progress; for example, it has meant the construction of roads and hospitals and other elements considered to be hallmarks of development and modernity. What has received less attention is the environmental devastation, the erasure of ethnic identities, and the subjugation of native cultures and languages through a process of Russification.
According to Junisbai, in Russian society, the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 is often lamented as a tragic loss. Putin famously referred to the event as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. In contrast, for the nations ruled by Moscow as part of the Soviet Union, 1991 marks the historical moment that brought sovereignty and independence.
“We want to see how Russia’s war against Ukraine is viewed in the Caucasus and Central Asia,” he said, “and how it impacts public opinion about both the Soviet legacy and modern-day Russia."
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