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Given a choice, most Russians would live in a republic or even go back to Soviet domination before they would bow down to a monarch, according to a VTsIOM opinion center poll.
According to the results published Friday, 56 percent of Russians are content with the current presidential republic or would like a parliamentary one, and 22 percent would prefer to go back to the Soviet times -- but only nine percent would choose a monarchy.
Of the poll’s 1,600 respondents, 66 percent were set against re-introducing the monarchy in Russia, though 19 percent would agree to it if the candidate was worthy, the opinion center said, adding that only three percent wished for a monarch and had already chosen a candidate to their taste.
Also, 63 percent think that restoring monarchy would do Russia no good.
However, an overwhelming number of the poll’s respondents -- 81 percent in total -- said they thought the issue irrelevant or undeserving of their attention.
Nicolas II was forced to abdicate after riots in February 1917 over the country’s disastrous performance in World War I, and was shot the following year by the Bolsheviks, ending the Romanov dynasty’s three centuries of rule over Russia.
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