Religion

Abstract

Religion has experienced significant changes within the last few decades in Russia: suppressed and widely ignored in the Soviet Union, religion and especially Orthodox Christianity has become one of the most respected phenomena in post-Soviet Russia. This chapter considers the main religious communities in Russia, their state, and their influence. It focuses on the largest and most important of them, which is the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The chapter examines the relationship of the ROC with the state and society. Representatives of the church frequently understood their role as the strengthening and stabilising of the state, as providing moral foundations for the new Russia. The ROC has had a stable position within Russian society for a long time. The state obviously seeks to use the Church as a bond that helps to keep the country together, an instrument that can offer ties or common values. It is interesting and important to study the role of the ROC in Russian society.