Deep in the heart of their national psyche, do Russians really yearn for democracy?

Several surveys appear to show that Russians prefer authoritarian order to democracy. One poll found that 53 percent of Russians opposed democracy, while 22 percent favored it.

But the story behind those numbers, as well as other poll results, complicate that view. While Russians want stability - a condition that President Vladimir Putin is widely credited with restoring - Russians are also attached to democratic values.

"There's a battle of data, and everybody cites their favorite poll," says Michael McFaul, a Russia expert at Stanford University, who began canvassing Russian opinions more than a decade ago.

"The big picture is, if you ask Russians about the actual practice of democracy - Should there be a separation of powers? Should people vote for their leaders? Should there be independent media? - a two-thirds majority say yes," says Mr. McFaul. "But when you ask about their experience with democracy, it's been very negative, because folks that called themselves democrats are perceived as having failed in the 1990s."

The contradictory responses from Russians - with their long history of dictatorship and centralized rule - are no more enigmatic than the stance of Mr. Putin, who pays frequent lip service to democracy while acting to tighten his grip on power.

"We've got to critically analyze the state of our democracy," Mr. Putin declared in his state-of-the-nation address Wednesday. "Adherence to democratic values is dictated by the will of our people and strategic interests of the Russian Federation."

Putin concluded that the "most important" - and "most complicated" - national task will be "creation of a free society of free people in Russia."

But beneath the gauzy rhetoric, the Kremlin has stifled political opposition and taken control of key national media. The policy is called "managed democracy."

Qualifying democracy may be necessary, given Russia's recent history. Painful memories persist of the 1990s free-for-all, when state control broke down and self-styled "democrats" grew like mushrooms across the dank political landscape. An analysis by Richard Pipes of Harvard University in the current issue of Foreign Affairs concludes that "no more than one Russian in ten cares about democratic liberties and civil rights."

"Democracy is widely viewed as a fraud," writes Mr. Pipes. "Experience has taught Russians to associate weak government - and democracy is seen as weak - with anarchy and lawlessness."

As one strand of evidence, Pipes cites the 53 percent opposition to democracy. But the analysis published in the newspaper Izvestia last July, the original source cited in the Foreign Affairs article, says the poll results reflect "a society disillusioned not so much with democracy itself, [but] with its own political choice made in the early 1990s."

Another poll last November asked Russians how they wanted their nation to be perceived: 48 percent said "mighty, unbeatable, indestructible, a great world power." One percent said "democratic."

Russia watchers see this as only one piece of Russia's complicated democracy puzzle.

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