Lenin's Popularity Highest in Years on Revolutionary's 144th Birthday

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Support for the legacy of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin is on the rise, a poll published on the eve of the 144th anniversary of his birth showed.

Asked what they thought about Lenin's contribution to Russian history, 38 percent of Russians said his influence had been "mostly positive." The survey, conducted by the independent Levada Center pollster and published Monday, showed a steady increase in Lenin's popularity since 2006, when only 29 percent rated his influence as mostly positive. The figure had risen to 36 percent by 2012.

In a corresponding trend, the number of people who see Lenin's contribution as "mostly negative" has dropped from 27 percent in 2006 to 21 percent this year. Those who saw his legacy as "completely negative" also declined, from 9 percent in 2006 to 5 percent this year. The number of Russians who rated Lenin's legacy as "entirely positive" has remained steady for the past two years, at 13 percent. Lenin played a key role in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and is widely considered to be the architect of the Soviet Union. The poll was conducted among 1,603 Russians from March 21-24 in 45 Russian regions. The margin of error was 3.4 percent.