Citizens forget what day is celebrated in Russia on December 12

On the eve of Constitution Day and the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly, the leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia again called for “repair” of the Basic Law, a change to which the President did not rule out. Sociologists are convinced that the Constitution in Russia “has not become a value of the highest order” and can be changed if the authorities so want. As data from the Levada Center show, every year fewer and fewer citizens know what date is celebrated in the Russian Federation on December 12. And a third believe that laws must be observed, even if they conflict with the Basic Law of the country.

Every year, the number of citizens who know what day is celebrated in the Russian Federation on December 12 (the day of adoption of the 1993 Constitution) decreases. If in 2010 75% of those surveyed by the Levada Center remembered this, in 2011 - 74%, now - 71% of respondents. At the same time, 29% of respondents believe that laws must be observed, even if they conflict with the Constitution (in 2010, 21% of respondents said so, in 2011 - 30%). This is not surprising, because “the majority of Russian citizens have little exposure to the Constitution and little understanding of what it is,” says Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the Levada Center. In addition, in 2004, Constitution Day was canceled as a holiday (it remained on the calendar only as a memorial date), he recalled. The constitution is indifferent to citizens, Leonty Byzov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is sure, and “the constitutional system in the Russian Federation is a ceremonial decoration,” because in reality we have “not a republican, but a quasi-monarchical system, when the monarch is chosen by the elites on the basis of an agreement that is not written down anywhere.” According to him, this version of the Constitution is inorganic and “imposed on society,” but if a referendum is held again, society will again accept any amendments.

“To repair the Constitution,” which “was adopted by a third of the votes - 33 million out of 106 million, under parliamentary shooting” and placed powers “in the hands of one person,” was once again called for by the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov yesterday at an international parliamentary forum. And the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, noted that when adjusting it, it is “obligatory” to adopt a law on a constitutional assembly. Without it, we recall, it is impossible to change Chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Basic Law, which describe the foundations of the constitutional system, human and civil rights. Two draft laws on the constitutional assembly, which were submitted to the State Duma back in 2000, were rejected by deputies only in September, noting that such a mechanism would be required “when there is an urgent need for changes.”

Vladimir Putin, who will deliver a message to the Federal Assembly tomorrow, already spoke at the end of November about a possible change to the Constitution in connection with the transition to direct elections of members of the Federation Council. A week later, the head of the Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, said that “the Constitution as a whole can be changed when it is impossible not to change.”

The general director of the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, Valery Fedorov, told Kommersant that for citizens the Constitution “is not a sacred cow and is not an icon either.” “The Constitution has not become a value of the highest order, like the flag, coat of arms and anthem. It exists, it doesn’t bother anyone - and that’s good. But if the authorities say that something needs to be changed and it seems convincing, the population will quickly adapt,” said the sociologist, recalling that citizens supported the extension of the presidential term, which was initiated by President Medvedev. There is something to change in the Constitution, but “in the current situation, the Constitution can only be changed for the worse - we will get a statist ideology, an attack by the church on the state and several other negative elements,” says Viktor Sheinis, a member of the political committee of the Yabloko party, one of the developers of the Constitution.

Maxim Ivanov

The Constitution is ready for repair