The previous post featured a map of Russian IQ based on an online survey (n=238,619) for Russian men interested in serving as contract soldiers run by the Ministry of Defense.

The data has recently been released by Konstantin Sugonyaev (see PDF).

However, as was suggested by Sugonyaev at the start, it is also possible to calculate a proxy of “patriotism” based on the percentage of each region’s population that took the test during the 2012-2017 period that his paper covers.

Results

Along with the Altai Republic, the city of Sevastopol (5.4/1,000 took the test) is Russia’s most patriotic region; Crimea as a whole (2.2/1,000) is also well above the Russian average of 1.6/1,000.

This is bearing in mind that they only joined the “experiment” midway through. Adjust for that, and Crimea as a whole becomes one of Russia’s top 5 most patriotic regions at the very least.

So much for muh Russian occupation. (Isn’t it cool how entirely unrelated research demolishes Western propaganda?).

The more patriotic regions tend to be frontier areas with a heavy military presence (e.g. Kaliningrad, Primorye, Murmansk) and the Far Eastern region (e.g. Zabaikalye, Amur). The latter regions also vote relatively more for the LDPR.

Amongst Russia’s ethnic minorities, the Tuvans and Buryats stand out in particular for their patriotism.

Saint-Petersburg (1.8/1,000) is more patriotic than the Russian average, while Moscow (1.2/1,000) is considerably less patriotic.

The least patriotic Russian regions tend to be regions with large oil and extraction industries, such as Khanty-Mansiysk, the Yamalo-Nenets AO, the Sakha Republic, and Tyumen oblast. I assume this is because the men have much better financial prospects working in the local economy.

The least patriotic regions are Ingushetia (0.3/1,000) and Chechnya (0.2/1,000).

As I pointed out, when you adjust for near endemic electoral fraud, Chechnya becomes Russia’s most oppositionist province. At one point, a disturbingly large percentage of Chechnya’s population were subscribed to an extremist Islamist social media group. This would be one more data point than Kadyrov is merely keeping a lid on things.

Anyhow, broader observation. Buryats – Russia’s most patriotic ethnic minority; Chechens and Ingush – the least.

Just like with Yaroslavl’s high IQ, there is what we might call deep history here. More Buryats died as soldiers in World War II as a percentage of their population than any other ethnicity bar Russians – around 5.8% in both cases. In contrast, only 0.5% of Chechens and Ingush died as Red Army soldiers – an order of magnitude lower than for the USSR as a whole.