SUFFERING ON ACCOUNT OF THE MIDDLE AGES: TWO SURVEYS OF RUSSIAN SOCIAL NETWORKS USERS
The article presents the results of two surveys conducted among «VKontakte» and «Facebook» users in May 2012 and in August 2019. The objective was to identify the sources of information about the Middle Ages for ordinary people, to define the modern phenomena that prompted people to seek for parallels with medieval history and to understand how the image of the Middle Ages changed in collective consciousness during the last seven years. 664 people took part in the survey in 2012 and 1627 people in 2019. The ratio of females to males and the percentage of those aged 37-46 years have grown considerably. 87% are interested in the history of the Middle Ages, but 22% consider their knowledge fuzzy and fragmentary or null. A comparison of the two surveys has shown that the willingness to read, as well as to watch or attend happenings in some way related to the Middle Ages expressed in 2012 is usually far from its realisation. In 2019 people read non-fiction books and articles (especially online) more often than the respondents were ready to in 2012. Public lectures are the least popular. 73% of respondents are not able to name any medievalist and 83% are not aware of the existence of the journal “Srednie veka”. However, many participants of the survey were pleased to learn about it.