Russia Least Religious in Practice among Predominantly Orthodox Christian Countries Despite Relatively High Levels of Declared Orthodox Identity, Surveys Show

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 23 – In terms of practice and respect for the church, Russia is the least religious among all predominantly Orthodox Christian countries, the World Values Survey finds, despite Kremlin efforts it as the leader of the Orthodox world. Instead, its people treat Orthodox as a norm to be acknowledged but not necessarily follow, just as they did Soviet values earlier.

    That conclusion – see worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV7.jsp as discussed at re-russia.net/analytics/0283/ -- is supported by Russian polling which shows young Russians far more irreligious and even hostile to the ROC MP than their elders, people born in Soviet times and who view Orthodoxy like they viewed Soviet ideological positions.

    Compared to other predominantly Orthodox countries, these surveys show that far more Russians are atheist, far fewer attend church or church rules, see religiosity as important for themselves or as a quality they seek in their children.   In short, Putin has made Russia a country of “declarative” Orthodox but not a religious one.