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Distribution of
Eastern Orthodoxy in the world by country
Dominant religion
Important minority
religion (over 10%)
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Under the
current Constitution, Russia is pronounced to be a secular state
that has no single state or compulsory religion. Religious
associations are separated from the state and are equal before law.
Each citizen is guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion.
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Traditionally,
Russia’s main religion was Orthodox Christianity. It left an indelible mark on the Russian spiritual, cultural, and
political traditions. Both Russia and the West represented
predominantly Christian civilizations. However, Christianity reached
them by different channels. Rome was the West’s main mediator of
Christianity, whereas in Russia’s case it was the Byzantine Empire
that acted as its Christian “godmother.”
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Byzantium was the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and it
saw itself as its heir after the collapse of the western part in
476. Catholicism (the western form of Christianity) reflected the
peculiarities of Roman civilization, whereas Orthodoxy (the eastern
form of Christianity) was imbued with the spirit of Greek
civilization that dominated Byzantium at the time of the
implantation of Christianity in Russia (Christianity was adopted as
Russia’s state religion by
Great Prince
Vladimir
in 988).
During
the Soviet era, the communist authorities suppressed church and
religion, and demolished many places of worship. In the 1920s and
1930s, priests, monks, and nuns were targeted as “class enemies” and
put behind bars or sent into exile. Attempts at religious education
of children were branded “counterrevolutionary propaganda” and
stamped out relentlessly.
Only in the
extreme conditions of World War II Stalin changed his policy in
relation to the church to a certain extent. The rituals of the
Orthodox Church and tsarist history were invoked in efforts to raise
patriotic sentiments to the highest possible pitch. However, after
the war religious life was again severely restricted. Militant
atheism continued to be the regime’s official policy. In the
atheistic propaganda of the period religion was characterized as a
“vestige of the past” that had to be eliminated completely.
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