Nearly Ten Percent Fewer Russians Identify Now as Orthodox than Did a Decade Ago, Levada Center Poll Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 16 – Despite the Kremlin’s promotion of Orthodoxy as a key element of Russian identity, nine percent fewer Russians now identify as Orthodox by identity and significantly fewer take part in church activities than did a decade ago, according to surveys conducted by the independent Levada Center.

            Those findings, available at levada.ru/2022/05/16/religioznye-predstavleniya/ and trtrussian.com/novosti-rossiya/kolichestvo-pravoslavnyh-v-rossii-sokratilos-za-poslednie-desyatiletiya-8865903, differ from those of government-related surveys that suggest Russian religiosity has remained at high levels (fom.ru/TSennosti/14717).

            The Levada Center reports appear far more credible, and what they show must be disturbing to many of the traditionalists who now dominate the ideological thinking of the Putin regime. Only 53 percent of Russians say they are religious at all, with 33 percent saying they aren’t very religious and 16 percent declaring they aren’t religious at all.

            Forty-three percent say they never take part in religious services; 17 percent more say they do so less than once a year, and only 14 percent say they do so more of than that, with only eight percent declaring that they do so more often than once a month, the Levada Center surveys show.

            Of Russian residents of all nationalities who do declare a religion, 71 percent identify as Orthodox, five percent as Muslims, and one percent each Buddhists, Catholics and Protestants. Another four percent say they are atheists, while 15 percent indicate that they do not identify with any religion.