Reinventing Religion in Russia
Reinventing Religion in Russia

Summary/Abstract: The collapse of the Soviet Union opened path to post-Soviet countries for all sorts of religious organizations, missionaries, as well as for religious activities, that existed underground during Soviet period or emerged after 1991. That time, widely addressed as Religious Renaissance in Russia, added new trends to religious landscape of the country, already immensely diverse. People had to find their own religious views, for majority lost because of the state policy. In many cases it was the reinventing of religion. Religious diversity of Russia is strongly connected to the ethnic adherence of the population. The common position is “Russian means Orthodox”, “Tatar means Muslim”, “Kalmyk means Buddhist” and so on. But the attendance of religious events is not that popular as labeling oneself as religious. Most of religious practices this day can be studied with three major conceptual frameworks. One describe existing rituals and places of worship (bricolage), second tells us more about attitude to religious organizations (vicarious religion) and third places the question under study in the context of state policies (ties between church and state). Can we say that in Russia there is pluralism? Solving problems with religious diversity and creating this pluralistic ideology is possible only by means of “melting” some differences for the same of civil society or the idea of citizenship. But it seems that Russia's chosen another way of solving the growing problems of diversity.

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