Competing Moral Discourses in Russia: Soviet Legacy and Post-Soviet Controversies

Abstract

ABSTRACTToday’s Russia is characterized by a great diversity of moral discourses expressing institutional and individual moral concepts, which come into conflict with each other over almost all socially significant issues. This research sets out to demonstrate that the intention of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to dominate the sphere of morality highly correlates with the attempts of Russian political powers to make the Church responsible for the moral atmosphere in the country. To this end, firstly, the article compares the ROC hierarchs’ concept of morality with the Soviet and post-Soviet views and argues that, despite some obvious differences, they share much in common. Thus, morality is interpreted as something originating ‘ab extra’, as an act of obedience of one’s will to the rules of action established by a higher authority. Secondly, the article analyses the moral discourse of recent events, which have aroused serious disagreement between the ROC and the wider public, e.g. the restitution of the ROC property, construction of new church buildings and cases of the ‘insult of believers’ feelings’. The author demonstrates that, in public debates, individuals tend to abandon ‘traditional’ morality and express moral principles arising ‘ab intra’ in contrast to morality imposed from ‘above’.