Only about Half as Many Russians Attended Christmas Services This Year than did in 2020, Driven Away by ROC MP’s Chauvinism, Homophobia and Militarism, One of Those who Didn’t Go Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 8 – Moscow played up the results of a VTsIOM poll showing that 63 percent of Russians marked Christmas one way or another (https://t.me/insomar/252), but data released by the Russian interior ministry about church attendance showed that ever fewer attended church services on this holiday.
    In 2020, the ministry said, 2.6 million Russians attended services – it did not provide data for the covid years but this year only 1.4 million did, a decline of almost 50 percent (moscowtimes.ru/2025/01/08/million-bogoostavlennih-na-rozhdestvo-v-hrami-prishlo-v-poltora-raza-menshe-prihozhan-chem-prezhde-a151868).
    There are likely many reasons for this decline, but Valery Panyushkin, a Moscow Times journalist who attended in the past but didn’t go to church this year says that the church itself has been driving people like himself away by its chauvinist, homophobic and militarist messages and few who have stopped going will consider returning until the messages change.