New Russian Emigration Far Less Religious than Earlier One But Some Fear It May Seek Alternative to Moscow Patriarchate, Faustova Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 18 – Most of the more than three million ethnic Russians who left their homeland after the Bolshevik revolution were Orthodox faithful and one of their first acts was to create Orthodox churches abroad independent of Moscow, a division that was partially but not completely overcome only in the last two decades.

            Now, with more than a half million Russians having left their country recently because of Putin’s war in Ukraine and especially his partial mobilization order, some in the Russian capital are worried that the new emigration will follow the pattern of its predecessor and set up Orthodox churches independent of Moscow.

            But experts say, Milena Faustova of NG-Religii reports that this is  highly unlikely because the share of religious among those leaving Russian now is miniscule and because most of the new emigration is interested in other things than faith and religious practice (ng.ru/ng_religii/2022-10-18/9_10_538_relocation.html).

            Another reason is that the countries to which Russian “relocators” are now moving are very different than those to which the members of the first emigration settled a century ago. Now, they include the Muslim countries of Central Asia and Turkey, the Buddhist country of Mongolia, and two countries – Armenia and Georgia -- with an Orthodox traditional already at odds with Moscow.

            In the former two, the number of Orthodox churches and believers is small and so few of the new emigres who are religious are inclined to strike out on their own. And in the last, they may attend the independent Orthodox churches. But in all three cases, the new emigres may attend Moscow-subordinate churches just because there are no obvious alternatives.

            Consequently, Faustova suggests, concern in Moscow is overblown; but it is perhaps entirely understandable given how many Orthodox churches abroad are breaking with Moscow, a trend the new Russian immigrants could contribute to if they join what are now Moscow churches but press for a break with that church.

            That possibility may be especially strong in the Central Asian countries where the indigenous Orthodox population is ever smaller with the departure and dying off of Slavic populations there. As a result, the new immigrants at least in principle could become a larger share of these congregations and bishoprics and cost Moscow still more churches in the process.