All-russia population census – 2002: Information,communications,public relations

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of the public relations campaign supporting the population census in Russia in 2002. The 2002 Census was specifically challenging as the previous Census had taken place in 1989 in the Soviet Union – a state with different frontiers, different political and economic system, and different mentality of the population. A general climate of distrust towards government agencies during the economically difficult transition process was an added difficulty. A carefully planned large scale information campaign was carried out to inform population about the census and to overcome the fears. It was differentiated towards different ethnic, social, etc. groups of the population. Mass media played a very important role. The public opinion polls showed that the number of people intending to take part in the population census increased by more than 10 percent during the year when the information campaign was carried out.