Between Orthodoxy and Eclecticism: on the Religious Transformations of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine

Abstract

Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism brought a radical change in the position of religion in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The legal position of the Churches changed to a model recognizing freedom of religion as a basic human right. Under these conditions in Eastern Europe, where the dominant religion was Orthodoxy, people moved towards that religion. The number of those who declared their belief in God and their adherence to the Orthodox tradition rose as dramatically as the number of atheists under communist persecution of religion. However, the nature of this religious revival, and the meaning of the “return” to Orthodoxy and being Orthodox, are unclear because the religiosity of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians also includes elements of New Age spirituality. Commitment to the Church, and the level of religious practice, are as low as in the most secularized Western European societies. Thus the author claims that, paradoxically, the picture of religiosity in countries where atheism was imposed for so many years is quite similar to that in countries where secularization has developed spontaneously.