Kimmo Kääriäinen and Dmitrii Furman

Table I. Russian Attitudes Toward Different Religions

Toward:	Very good	Good	Bad	Very bad
Orthodoxy	44	50	1	0
Islam	8	51	16	5
Catholicism	5	53	9	3
Russian Orthodox   Church Abroad	4	39	13	6
Buddhism	3	35	15	7
Old Believers	4	33	21	7
Judaism	2	28	19	8
Lutherans	2	27	12	6
Baptists	2	23	33	12
Krishnaism	1	20	20	13
Methodists	1	16	15	7
Pentecostals	1	15	24	12
Adventists	1	14	17	10
Jehovah's Witnesses	1	13	26	21
Munism [Moonies]	1	10	18	15

There is an understanding of Orthodoxy as the common Russian religion. [At the same time,] people, though they may be far from Orthodoxy, tend to pay higher respect to religions that are traditional for other nationalities and that do not direct any propaganda towards Russians. The "worst" religions are new ones and those that are active.
 
 

Table 2. People's Trust in Different Institutions

	Trust completely	Trust	Do not trust	Do not trust at all
Russian Orthodox Church	23	46	11	7
"The Green"	14	50	11	6
Army	9	43	26	12
UN	5	32	15	13
Television	5	45	32	12
European Union	3	23	19	13
Mass Media	3	37	35	18
Trade Unions	6	27	29	24
Courts	3	31	32	24
CIS Countries	1	20	32	16
Police	3	25	37	30
Government	2	23	36	32
Large Companies	1	14	28	30
Duma (Parliament)	2	13	40	38
Political Parties	1	7	39	34

Russian Orthodoxy not only is the leading religion, but also is the most trusted organization compared to other community and government institutions. Unlike trust in other institutions (or better said, distrust, because the degree of trust of the Russian people in different social institutions is strikingly small), trust in Orthodoxy is "ideological" because in reality only a small number of Russians have any real contacts with the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution. This is the direct expression of the "pro-Orthodox" consensus that has arisen in Russian society.

Orthodoxy and Russian Identity
According to the data, a close connection exists in the modern Russian mind between Orthodoxy and national identity. Orthodoxy took first place in national identity with the fall of the USSR and Soviet identity. In Soviet times "Soviet" conveyed pride in being the first Socialist country, free education and medical service, a great military force, and success in space. Now all that has collapsed and Russians have found themselves in the situation of not being certain what value there is in being Russian. Here Orthodoxy comes to the rescue, not so much as a religion, but as the symbol of Russian originality and spiritual worth, something that can be proudly opposed to others. As a result, the concept of "Orthodox" in modern Russia is not the concept of "believer," which totally contradicts any "normal" logic.

An Overlap of Orthodox and Nonbelievers
In 1991, 1993, and 1996 we asked the question: "Without any connection with your church attendance, do you consider yourself to be an adherent of any particular denomination?" People who answered "yes" in 1991 were 34 percent, in 1993--43 percent, and in 1996--36 percent, which is more than those who called themselves believers (correspondingly 23 percent, 32 percent, and 34 percent).  This means that for many Russians today it is possible to be an adherent of a certain faith without being a believer. When those who identified themselves as adherents of a denomination were asked what denomination, the majority (1991--80 percent; 1993 and 1996--91 percent) replied: Orthodox. Non-Orthodox were, first of all, representatives of different ethnic minorities, mostly Muslims. The total average of Baptists and Adventists was not more than one percent in all these years among those who identified themselves with any religious faith, let alone all the respondents. In fact, many nonbelievers are "Orthodox," and even atheists can claim the same, like Belorussian president A. Lukashenko: "I am an Orthodox atheist."

In 1999 we asked respondents a similar but slightly different question. We did not ask before if  respondents identify themselves as adherents of any confession but we asked directly: "Do you consider yourself an adherent of Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism, or other confessions, or an unbeliever?" With this formulation 82 percent of all Russian respondents called themselves Orthodox (3 percent called themselves nonbelievers and 13 percent--"do not know"). This shows that the number of Orthodox is much greater than the number of believers (42 percent). Fifty percent of nonbelievers called themselves Orthodox and 42 percent of atheists did the same. That 82 percent of Russians consider themselves Orthodox certainly is a great achievement, but it is clear that such "ideological" Orthodoxy has only very indirect relation to religious faith.

Translated by Vitaliy Bak.

Excerpt printed with permission from Kimmo Kääriäinen and Dmitrii Furman, Starye tserkvi, novye veruiushchie; religiia v massovom soznanii postsovetskoi Rossii [Old Churches, New Believers; Religion in the Mass Consciousness of Post-Soviet Russia] (Moscow: Letnii Sad, 2000).

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© 2002 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664