DOI: 10.14473/csda/9gcmx1
title: Euromaidan: Survey of Participants (2013-2014) and Public Opinion of Ukrainian Population on Euromaidan (2015-2018) - FIRST POLL OF MAIDAN

description: Euromaidan (or the Revolution of Dignity) is the name given to the protests of late November 2013 - February 2014 that began after the Ukrainian government announced that it was suspending its course towards European integration. KIIS, in collaboration with DIF and with funding from the International Renaissance Foundation, conducted three polls among participants of the Maidan protests in Kyiv: • The first poll of Maidan participants was held on weekdays, the 7th and 8th of December 2013. A total of 1037 respondents were interviewed using a method that provides a random sample of Maidan participants. • The second poll of Maidan, conducted when it had become a stationary camp (Maidan-camp), took place on December 20, 2013 (Friday). A total of 515 persons were interviewed, representing all stationary points on the square. • On February 3, 2014 (Monday), the third survey of Maidan participants was conducted. In total, 502 people were interviewed at all stationary points of Maidan (tents, House of Trade Unions, the building of the Kyiv City State Administration, October Palace, Ukrainian House, and others), according to a sample that provided proportional coverage of Maidan participants. The topics addressed in these polls include the motivations and demands of the protesters, their willingness to continue participating in protests, the conditions under which they would leave, as well as the socio-demographic profile of participants. The purpose of the survey was to discover whether and what changes had happened among Maidan participants at different stages, exploring shifts in the social and demographic structure, as well as changes in views and demands. After the end of Euromaidan and a period of time passed, KIIS incorporated a question into its nationwide polls with the objective of understanding the public's perception of those protests. The question was: "Please tell me which of the following two statements is closer to your opinion? Euromaidan was... 1) a people's protest in support of Ukraine's European path of development, against government corruption, and violence from representatives of law enforcement OR 2) a struggle for power by anti-Russian, nationalist forces supported by Western intelligence services". This question was designed and employed as part of an assessment of the effectiveness of Russian propaganda; therefore, the second option deliberately repeats one of the Russian propaganda theses. In the period 2015-2018, this question was included in four public opinion polls. Each of the polls was carried out on a sample representative of Ukraine's adult population (aged 18 and older), with an average sample size of about 2,000 respondents. For ease of analysis, the data from these polls was merged into one dataset, with a total of 8,119 respondents. The background information includes respondents' socio-demographic profiles (gender, age, education, nationality, occupation, self-assessment of financial situation) and place of residence (oblast, type of settlement). These data can be used to analyse the transformations of retrospective perceptions of the Euromaidan events among the population of Ukraine, particularly as an indicator of the influence of various narratives across different territorial and socio-demographic groups.