The “L Phenomenon”
On the First Anniversary of the Death of Yurii Levada (1930–2006)
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
With the death of Yurii Levada on November 16, 2006, Russia lost one of its leading sociologists and opinion researchers, a researcher who maintained his independence of thought despite all of the state harassment directed against him and his academic work. Ousted from institutionalized academia, Levada in the 1970s gathered Moscow’s dissident intelligentsia around him in informal seminars. No Soviet power, no Putin administration got in the way of the “L Phenomenon”: Levada’s reputation as empirical social researcher and moral authority remained spotless. His life work is being continued by his former colleagues at the Levada Institute.
(Osteuropa 10/2007, pp. 85–94)