28.05.2012
Outstanding Ukrainians of all time
- The most outstanding Ukrainians of all time are considered to be Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. The Rating Group presents a special project entitled “People’s TOP,” which will consist of a series of surveys aimed at identifying the very best of the best. A distinctive feature of the methodology is that respondents are not given any lists or prompts; people express their opinions exclusively through open-ended questions.
- In May, we present the issue “Outstanding Ukrainians of All Time.” According to the survey results, an overwhelming majority of respondents named Taras Shevchenko as one of the greatest Ukrainians of all time (58.7%). Completing the top three are Lesya Ukrainka (22.5%) and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (20.1%).
- The rest of the top ten includes Ivan Franko (12.7%), Vitali Klitschko (10.8%), Mykhailo Hrushevskyi (7.7%), Hryhorii Skovoroda (5.7%), Ivan Mazepa (5.6%), Stepan Bandera (4.3%), and Yaroslav the Wise (3.8%). The second ten includes Mykola Amosov (3.7%), Viacheslav Chornovil (3.5%), Andrii Shevchenko (3.0%), Yuliia Tymoshenko (2.8%), Volodymyr Klitschko (2.8%), Mykola Hohol (2.4%), Serhii Koroliov (2.1%), Sofia Rotaru (1.9%), Borys Paton (1.8%), and Serhii Bubka (1.6%).
- The third ten consists of Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi (1.6%), Lina Kostenko (1.4%), Volodymyr the Great (1.4%), and three presidents of modern Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych (1.4%), Leonid Kuchma (1.1%), and Leonid Kravchuk (1.1%), as well as Oleksandr Dovzhenko (1.1%), Valerii Lobanovskyi (1.1%), Bohdan Stupka (0.9%), and Pavlo Tychyna (0.9%).
- The top 50 also includes, with scores between 0.5% and 0.8%, Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi, Ivan Skoropadskyi, Sydir Kovpak, Taras Bulba, Ivan Kotliarevskyi, Yana Klochkova, Princess Olha, Oleh Blokhin, Petro Symonenko, Danylo Halytskyi, Petro Sahaidachnyi, Vasyl Stus, Pylyp Orlyk, Nestor Makhno, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Roman Shukhevych, Liliia Podkopaieva, Volodymyr Vernadskyi, Viktor Yushchenko, Ivan Kozhedub, Mykola Pyrohov, and Andrii Sheptytskyi.
- In total, respondents named 224 different individuals. At the same time, about 15% of respondents were unable to name or recall any outstanding Ukrainians, with the highest share on the Donbas (27%) and the lowest in Central Ukraine (9%).
- The figure of Taras Shevchenko is recognized equally across all age groups and both in villages and cities, and he is mentioned most frequently in Western Ukraine and more often by women. Lesya Ukrainka is more often named in villages, in the West, North, and East, and more often by women. Bohdan Khmelnytskyi is more often mentioned in cities and more often by men; his figure is more widely recognized in Central, Northern, and Eastern Ukraine and least in the West. Ivan Franko is mentioned most frequently in Western Ukraine, more often in villages, and more often by older people than by the young.
- Vitali Klitschko is seen as an outstanding Ukrainian mainly by young people, much more often by men, and more often in villages. Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Hryhorii Skovoroda, and Ivan Mazepa are more often named in cities, primarily by middle-aged and older people. Hrushevskyi is mentioned more in Central Ukraine, Skovoroda in the North, and Mazepa in the West.
- Stepan Bandera is named mainly in Western Ukraine, where he ranks among the top five most outstanding Ukrainians of all time. Viacheslav Chornovil is also named relatively more often in the West. In Central Ukraine, Yuliia Tymoshenko is named more often; in the South, Mykola Amosov, Serhii Koroliov, Mykola Hohol, Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, as well as Leonid Kuchma and Volodymyr Klitschko; in the East, Yaroslav the Wise, Volodymyr the Great, as well as Sofia Rotaru and Valerii Lobanovskyi; in the Donbas, Serhii Bubka; and in the North, Borys Paton and Oleksandr Dovzhenko.
Methodology
- Survey population: population of Ukraine aged 18 and older
- Sample size: 2,000 respondents
- Method: face-to-face formalized interview using a questionnaire
- Sampling error (95% confidence level): for values close to 50% no more than 2.2%, close to 30% no more than 2.0%, close to 10% no more than 1.3%, close to 5% no more than 1.0%
- Fieldwork period: May 5–14, 2012
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