‘Religion' in Russia's strategic thinking

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, in most post-Soviet societies a variety of religious groups emerged offering alternative moral discourses and practices that clearly challenged the atheist policies created under socialism broadly understood as ‘scientific atheism’. Consequently, both institutional and ideological aspects of religion emerged as distinct factors in the social and political life of most-post Soviet countries. Rediscovering religion in most of these societies meant regaining not just historical memory and heritage but also reconstructing national identity. In the political vocabulary of post-Soviet Russia, the concept of ‘spiritual security’ gained currency. It is significant that in the official documents of Russia, spiritual security is listed as a sub-set of national security and encapsulates a number of key political undercurrents and trends in contemporary Russia. Most importantly, it is also shaping its religious diplomacy and soft power projections. This chapter aims to understand why the state-sponsored scientific atheism propounded during the Soviet era had a limited impact and how the reimagination of religion in post-Soviet Russia has impacted Russian policymaking both domestically and internationally and has become the cornerstone of what is being described as spiritual security.