What People Think About Religion

Vol. 2, No. 3, Summer 1994, Covering the Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe

What People Think About Religion

Current comparative data on religious attitudes in various countries of the former Soviet Union and East Central Europe are rare. Roger Russell Research (RRR), in conjunction with indigenous research institutes, has performed a valuable service by conducting such survey research recently (1991-93) and in quite diverse settings (from the Czech Republic to Latvia to Tatarstan). It is true that East Central European results from 1991 may not permit definitive comparisons with 1993 results from the former Soviet Union. Nevertheless, a two-year differential does not seriously detract from the exceptional opportunity to make substantive comparisons among four nations of East Central Europe and four republics of the former Soviet Union concerning religious affiliation, frequency of religious observance, and knowledge of the Bible.

Principals in the project, in addition to the British-based RRR, were the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the Far East Broadcasting Company, Institut pro vyzkum verejneho mineni (Public Opinion Research Institute-Prague), Szonda Ipsos Media (Opinion and Market Research Company-Budapest), PENTOR Instytut Badania Opinii i Rynku (Public Opinion Research Institute-Warsaw) CESSI (Institute for Comparative Social Research-Moscow), the Institute of Sociology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences-Kiev, and Latvian Facts-Riga.

Comparative Survey Data on Religious Attitudes in Post-Soviet Societies

	Czech Republic	Slovakia	Hungary	Poland	European Russia	Tatarstan	Ukraine	Latvia
Sample Size	1,950	961	1,000	995	1,456	228	1,000	1,000
Survey Date	3/91	3/91	3/91	7/91	2/93	2/93	1/93	2/93
*Using a scale of 1 ("not at all favorably") to 10 ("extremely favorably"), how favorably do you rate the Church?*
Mean response	4.8	5.7	5.3	6.5	7.3	7.4	7.5	7.4
Tell me, other than for special events such as weddings, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, funerals, and excluding recitals, how often do you attend services, liturgies, or prayers in a place of worship (church, mosque, temple, synagogue, etc.)?¹ Note: All replies in percent.
Never	42	22	38	2	46	56	31	25
Several Times a Year	8	11	13	17	15	11	16	7
Once a Week	6	21	7	46	1	1	3	4
**Many people can say they are Christian, Orthodox, Baptist, Moslem, Buddhist, and so on. Please tell me how you would describe yourself.² (Less than 0.5%)***
Russian Orthodox					66	29	21	23
Ukrainian Orthodox					*	0	38	1
Old Believer					*	0	*	3
Other Orthodox	*	2	*	*	*	0	1	1
Lutheran/Slovak Evangelical	*	10	3	*	0	0	0	27
Evangelical Christian-Baptist					*	*	1	1
Pentecostal/Apostolic	0	0	*	*	*	0	*	*
Czech Evangelical Brethren	3	*
Reformed/Calvinist	0	2	20				*
Adventist	1	*
Other Protestant	1	1	*	*	*	0	*	*
Czech Hussite	3	*
Roman Catholic	42	60	64	96	0	0	1	17
Greek/Uniate/Old/Other Catholic	*	4	2		*	0	3	3
Moslem	0	0			5	40	*	*
Atheist/No Religion	49	20	8	2	17	15	16	9
*How favorably do you rate the Bible?*
Unfavorable (1-3)	23	17	12	5	6	5	5	5
Favorable (7-10)	34	47	46	68	56	50	64	56
*If you think of your own world view, in which group would you put yourself?*
Religious	33	54	50	80	20	32	22	22
Marxist/Atheist	14	11	3	*	19	14	17	13
*Tell me, do you believe in God?*
Yes	25	51	52	91	46	62	49	53
*Tell me, do you believe in the existence of life after death?*
Yes	16	36	22	61	21	33	27	29
*Which ONE of these statements comes closest to your understanding about God?* (* In Poland respondents were able to select all responses that they agreed with, whereas everywhere else they could choose only one option.)³
People can have a personal relationship with God	20	42	22	*60	15	12	16	16
I don't know whether God exists, but I would like to know	25	19	25	*26	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
I don't know if he exists, but I would like him to	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	26	18	22	22
There is no God, spirit, or anything like that	19	10	10	*2	6	3	5	3
*Can you tell me, what is the Bible? (Open Question)*
Don't Know	12	10	23	10	27	38	23	38
*And what is the New Testament ? (Open Question)*
Don't Know	40	29	52	29	67	76	52	60
*Which of the following Bible stories do you know of?* Sum of responses giving "know it well," "know it partly," and "know it slightly."⁴
The Creation of the World	87	93	87	87	67	52	83	78
The Great Flood/Deluge/Noah's Ark	81	91	87	88	63	47	78	74
David & Goliath	69	76	78	66	36	28	47	60
The Birth of Jesus	83	91	90	70	70	51	85	83
*Is there a Bible or New Testament in your home?⁵*
Yes	33	48	60	57	34	21	54	62
*How often do you read the Bible?*
Several Times a Week	2	4	5	2	2	1	5	8
Occasionally	18	25	40	39	25	18	41	39
Never	71	58	49	51	67	75	44	38
*Would you buy a new Bible now or in the future?*
Yes	31	40	31	28	40	32	47	36

Source: Religious and Social Attitudes and the Book Market, Central and Eastern Europe, 1991-1993; Thematic Tabulation and General Summary. Swindon, United Kingdom: Roger Russell Research, 1993. (122 pp., £102 or U.S. $170 for Europe; £109 or U.S. $180 for U.S.A. & other international; £98.50 for U.K.). To order send payment to RRR's distributor: Cornerstone International LTD, Park House, 25-28 Shrivenham Hundred Business Park, Swindon SN6 8T2 United Kingdom. Tel: 44-793-783-300; fax: 44-793-783-558. See EWC&M Report 1 (Winter 1993), 14, and 2 (Spring 1994), 13, for a complete list of RRR publications on religious attitudes in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Endnotes

Poles are by far the most frequent church attenders: half attend weekly and three-quarters are in church at least once a month. Next are Slovaks with about one-third attending weekly.
Affiliations denote nominal attachments, not church membership or active adherence. Poland (especially), Slovakia, and Hungary (to a lesser extent) are predominantly Roman Catholic. Hungary has a large Reformed minority and Slovakia an Evangelical Lutheran one. Russia is predominantly Russian Orthodox. Ukraine is primarily Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic. Latvia is Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox. Tatarstan is predominantly Moslem (Suni), with a large Russian Orthodox minority. Protestants, apart from Hungary and Latvia, represent a tiny minority in all the countries surveyed. The Czech Republic seems the most secular country with half the population claiming to be either atheist or attached to no religion.
This question draws out some important perspectives about how people view God. An error in translation that was only picked up after the event enables us to have an insight that might otherwise have been missed. An option given to people in Central Europe was for the respondent to reply that s/he did not know whether God exists but would like to know. Replies give an idea of people's openness to finding out more--an evangelistic opportunity. A quarter of Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians indicated that they would like to know more, as did one in five Slovaks. However, in former Soviet republics the option was translated to read: s/he did not know whether God exists but would like him to. A quarter in Russia and one in five in Tatarstan, Ukraine, and Latvia were effectively saying that they wished God did exist.
Greater awareness of the various parts of the Bible listed was generally in countries with a Catholic tradition. By summing the percentage responses given for each section, the "league table" appears as: Slovakia 248, Hungary 239, Poland 226, Latvia 185, Ukraine 163, Czech Republic 140, Russia 76, Tatarstan 56. The lack of awareness is understandable in Moslem Tatarstan, but in European Russia as a whole it is not much better. It is also notable that despite Poland's record as a religious country, people have relatively little awareness of different parts of the Holy Scriptures.
Latvia, Hungary, and Poland would appear to have the widest distribution of Scriptures, with at least one Bible or New Testament in six of every 10 homes. The Scriptures can also be found in half the homes of Ukraine and Slovakia, and in a third of the homes in European Russia (with wide regional variations) and the Czech Republic, and in one in five Tatarstan homes. It should be borne in mind, though, that nearly two years separate the first polls in Czech and Slovak lands and the last in Russia, during which period the level of Scripture ownership no doubt grew in Central Europe. In Russia and Ukraine half the owners had purchased Scriptures, but in Latvia, only one-third. In Russia four out of five Bibles had been obtained within three years preceding the survey, i.e., since the beginning of 1990. In Ukraine and Latvia this period had accounted for three in five Bible acquisitions.

"What People Think About Religion" East-West Church & Ministry Report, 2 (Summer 1994), 6-7.

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