At the end of last year, we announced that we would conduct a sociological survey in the stanitsa (Cossack village) of Kushchyovskaya—the very place where the Tsapok gang operated, protected by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Because of the New Year holidays and vacation period, there was a delay in publishing the results (they required processing).
We’re publishing them now. The results are quite interesting; many thanks to the volunteer sociologists who worked on the survey.
The next question was open-ended—meaning we did not offer respondents a set of answer choices, but asked them to express their views in detail, in their own words. We coded all of these responses into groups, and here are the results:
While processing the responses, we found some groups especially important and decided to quote the answers that struck us most. Half of Kushchyovskaya’s residents know what the Tsapkovskye organized criminal group is. In other words, they are not talking about “bandits in general,” but specifically about this organized crime group, describing them as murderers, gangsters, and rapists. Interestingly, though, there are also positive characterizations—in the “knew them personally” group (6% of respondents):
But, I repeat, these positive views come from a group that accounts for only 6% of respondents.
And here are typical responses from the group “the Tsapoks are rapists” (8% of Kushchyovskaya residents):
Possibly the most important chart in our survey. Seventy-nine percent of Kushchyovskaya residents believe the main cause of the mass slaughter was corruption, ties to the police, and they blame the state. That is exactly what we argued in our investigation. If the Tsapoks had not been protected by the Chaikas and the Prosecutor General’s Office, this tragedy would not have happened.
Thirty percent of residents know about our film.
Almost one in ten residents of Kushchyovskaya has watched “Chaika”, which is higher than the Russian average according to Levada.
Forty-six percent of the stanitsa’s residents believe an investigation should be conducted into the ties between the Chaikas and the Tsapoks. Note how many people—13%—have so little faith in justice that they consider this pointless.
Overall, the survey results once again tell us this: the fight against the Chaikas and the other prosecutors who protected the Tsapoks is a just cause, and we will continue it.
This year we will continue conducting sociological research—come help us.