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Orthodox Christianity is the most widely professedreligion inRussia, with significant minorities ofnon-religious people and adherents of other faiths.[1][2][3] Russia has the world'slargest Orthodox population.[4]
Theconstitution of Russia recognises the right to freedom of conscience and creed to all the citizenry,[5] the spiritual contribution of Orthodox Christianity to thehistory of Russia, and respect to "Christianity,Islam,Buddhism,Judaism and other religions and creeds which constitute an inseparable part of the historical heritage of Russia's peoples",[6] includingethnic religions orpaganism, either preserved, or revived.[7]
According to the Russian law, any religious organisation may be recognised as "traditional", if it was already in existence before 1982, and each newly founded religious group has to provide its credentials and re-register yearly for fifteen years, and, in the meantime until eventual recognition, stay without rights.[6]
TheRussian Orthodox Church, though its influence is thin in some parts ofSiberia and southern Russia, where there has been a perceptible revival of pre-Christian religion,[8] acts as thede facto, if notde jure, privileged religion of the state, claiming the right to decide which other religions or denominations are to be granted the right of registration.[6] SomeProtestant churches which were already in existence before theRussian Revolution have been unable to re-register, and theCatholic Church has been forbidden to develop its ownterritorial jurisdictions.[9] According to some Western observers, respect for freedom of religion by Russian authorities has declined since the late 1990s and early 2000s.[10][11] For example, the activities of theJehovah's Witnesses are currently banned in Russia. According toInternational Christian Concern, during 2021 "crackdowns on religious freedom have intensified in Russia".[12]
Since the dissolution of theSoviet Union in 1991 there has been a revival and spread ofSiberian shamanism[13] (often mixed with Orthodox elements[14]), and the emergence ofHinduism[15] andnew religious movements throughout Russia. There has been an "exponential increase in new religious groups and alternative spiritualities",Eastern religions andNeopaganism, even among self-defined "Christians"—a term which has become a loose descriptor for a variety of eclectic views and practices.[16] Russia has been defined by the scholarEliot Borenstein as the "Southern California of Europe" because of such a blossoming of new religious movements, and the latter are perceived by the Russian Orthodox Church as competitors in a "war for souls".[16] However, the multiplicity of religions in Russia has been a traditional component of Russian identities for hundreds of years, contributing to a long-established ethno-cultural pluralism.[17]
One of the2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia has aConstitutional references to God.[18]
Before the tenth century,Russians practisedSlavic religion. As recalled by thePrimary Chronicle, Orthodox Christianity was made the state religion ofKievan Rus' in 987 byVladimir the Great, who opted for it among other possible choices as it was the religion of theByzantine Empire. Since then, religion,mysticism, and statehood remained intertwined elements in Russia's identity.[19] TheRussian Orthodox Church, perceived as the glue consolidating the nation, accompanied the expansion of theRussian Empire in the eighteenth century. CzarNicholas I's ideology, under which the empire reached its widest extent, proclaimed "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nation" (Pravoslavie,samoderzhavie,narodnost') as its foundations. The dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church was sealed by law, and, as the empire incorporated peoples of alternative creeds, religions were tied toethnicities to skirt any issue of integration. Until 1905, only the Russian Orthodox Church could engage in missionary activity to convert non-Orthodox people, and apostasy was treated as an offense punishable by law.Catholicism,Islam and other religions were tolerated only among outsider (inoroditsy) peoples but forbidden from spreading among Russians.[20]
Throughout the history of early and imperial Russia there were, however, religious movements which posed a challenge to the monopoly of the Russian Orthodox Church and put forward stances of freedom of conscience, namely theOld Believers—who separated from the Russian Orthodox Church afterPatriarch Nikon's reform in 1653 (theRaskol)—, andSpiritual Christianity.[21] It is worth noting that the Russian Orthodox Church itself never forbade personal religious experience and speculative mysticism, andGnostic elements had become embedded in Orthodox Christianity since the sixth century, and later strengthened by the popularity ofJakob Böhme'sthought in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Orthodox seminaries.[22]
By the end of the eighteenth century,dvoeverie ("double faith"), popular religion which preserved Slavic pantheism under a Christianised surface, found appreciation among intellectuals who tried to delineate Russian distinctiveness against the West.[22] On 17 April 1905,Tsar Nicholas II decreed that religious minorities had the right to publicly celebrate their respective liturgies.[23][24] At the dawn of the twentieth century,esoteric andoccult philosophies and movements, includingSpiritualism,Theosophy,Anthroposophy,Hermeticism,Russian cosmism and others, became widespread.[25] At the same time the empire had begun to make steps towards the recognition of the multiplicity of religions that it had come to encompass, but they came to an abrupt end with theRussian Revolution in 1917.[26] After the revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church lost its privileges, as did all minority religions, and the new state verged towards anatheist official ideology.[26] Under theSoviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church lived periods of repression and periods of support and cooptation by the state.[27] Despite the policies of state atheism, censuses reported a high religiosity among the population; in 1929, 80% of the population were believers, and in 1937 two-thirds described themselves as believers, of whom three-fourths as Orthodox Christians.[28] The Russian Orthodox Church was supported underJoseph Stalin in the 1940s, after theSecond World War, then heavily suppressed underNikita Khrushchev in the 1960s, and then revived again by the 1980s.[27] While it was legally reconstituted only in 1949,[29] throughout the Soviet period the church functioned as an arm of theKGB; many hierarchs of the post-Soviet church were former KGB agents, as demonstrated by the opening of KGB archives in the 1990s.[30]
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1987–1991, the Russian Orthodox Church has struggled to regain its erstwhile monopoly of religious life, despite it and other Christian churches which existed since before the Revolution have found themselves in a radically transformed context characterised by a religious pluralism unknown before 1917.[26] During the Soviet period, religious barriers were shattered, as religions were no longer tied to ethnicity and family tradition, and an extensive displacement of peoples took place. This, together with the more recent swift ongoing development of communications, has resulted in an unprecedented mingling of different religious cultures.[26] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a renewal of religions in Russia, with the revival of the traditional faiths and the emergence of new forms within the traditional faiths as well as manynew religious movements.[16]Theamendments of 2020 to the constitution added, in the Article 67, the continuity of the Russian state in history based on preserving "the memory of the ancestors" and general "ideals and belief in God" which the ancestors conveyed.[31]
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In the study of religions in Russia, the "ethnic principle" is based on the assumption that the entire number of people belonging to a given ethnic group are adherents of that group's traditional religion. This principle is often used to estimate the magnitude of very small groups, for instance FinnishLutheranism at 63,000, assuming that all the 34,000 Finns and 28,000 Estonians of Russia are believers in their historical religion; or German Lutheranism at 400,000, assuming that all Germans in Russia believe in their historical religion. However, whether for small or larger groups, this approach may lead to gross mistakes.[32]
The ethnic principle is sometimes misused to deliberately inflate the prevalence of certain religions, especially the larger ones, for political aims. For instance, Islamic and Orthodox leaders routinely claim that their religions have respectively 20 million and 120 million adherents in Russia, by counting all the individuals belonging to the ethnic groups which historically belonged to these religions.[32] By applying the ethnic principle, people who are indifferent to religion or are outspokenatheists, those who have converted to a different faith to that assigned by nationality, and people who participate in religions which historically have not been associated to specific ethnic groups in Russia—namelyOld Believers, new Russian converts toProtestantism,Catholicism andEastern religions, and others—are automatically excluded from the calculations.[32]
Another criterion to count religious populations in Russia is that of "religious observance". Based on this principle, very few Russians would be religious. It has been found that between 0.5% and 2% of people in big cities attendEaster services, and overall just between 2% and 10% of the total population (3 to 15 million people) are actively practising Orthodox Christians. The proportion of practising Muslims among ethnic groups which are historically Islamic is larger, 40% to 90% depending on the group, and yet smaller than any assumption based on the ethnic principle.[33]
The most accurate criterion to count religious populations in Russia is that of "self-identification", which allows to count also those people who identify themselves with a given religion but do not actually practise it. This principle provides a picture of how much given ideas and outlooks are widespread among the people.[34] Nevertheless, it has been noted that different people often give different meanings to the same identity markers; for instance, large percentages of people who self-identify as "Orthodox" have been found to believe that God is a "life force", to believe inreincarnation, astral connections, and otherNew Age ideas.[35]
Another method that has sometimes been used to determine the magnitude of religions in Russia is to count the number of their officially registered organisations. Such criterion, however, leads to inaccurate assumptions for various reasons. There is not the same arithmetic relationship between religions' number of local organisations and the number of their believers, as different religions have different organisational structures. Furthermore, different religions have different attitudes towards the registration of their organisations, and secular authorities register some without difficulties while hinder the registration of others. For instance, the Russian Orthodox Church is eager to register its communities when they are still at the embryonal stage, and many of them are actually inactive; the Old Believers traditionally do not consider registration as essential, and some branches reject it in principle; and Protestant churches have the largest number of unregistered congregations, probably around ten thousand, most of them extremely small groups, and while many denominations discourage registration, they often also face a negative disposition from secular authorities.[36]
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In the August of 2012 the first large-scale survey and mapping of religions in Russia based onself-identification was published in theSreda Arena Atlas, an extension of the2010 Census, with data on seventy-nine out of eighty-three of thefederal subjects of Russia.[3][37] On a rounded total population of 142,800,000 the survey found that 66,840,000 persons, or 47.4% of the total population, wereChristians.[3] Among them, 58,800,000 or 41.1% of the population were believers in theRussian Orthodox Church, 5,900,000 or 4.1% were Christians without any denomination, 2,100,000 or 1.5% were believers inOrthodox Christianity without belonging to any church or (a smaller minority) belonging to non-Russian Orthodox churches (includingArmenian andGeorgian), 400,000 or 0.2% wereOrthodox Old Believers, 300,000 or 0.2% wereProtestants, and 140,000 (less than 0.1%) wereCatholics.[3] Among the non-Christians, 9,400,000 or 6.5% of the population wereMuslims (includingSunni Islam,Shia Islam, and a majority ofunaffiliated Muslims), 1,700,000 or 1.2% werepagans (includingRodnovery,Assianism, and other religions) orTengrists (Turco-MongolShamanic religions and new religions), 700,000 or 0.5% wereBuddhists (mostly of theTibetan schools), 140,000 or 0.1% wereHindus (includingKrishnaites), and 140,000 werereligious Jews.[3] Among thenot religious population, 36,000,000 people or 25% declared to"believe in God (or in a higher power)" but to "not profess any particular religion", 18,600,000 or 13% wereatheists, and 7,900,000 or 5.5% did not state any religious, spiritual or atheist belief.[3]
| Religion | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number | % | |
| Christianity | 67,720,000 | 47.4 |
| –Russian Orthodox Church | 58,750,000 | 41.1 |
| –Other Orthodox Churches | 2,140,000 | 1.5 |
| –Old Believers' Orthodoxy | 460,000 | 0.3 |
| –Unaffiliated Christianity | 5,800,000 | 4.1 |
| –Protestantism and Pentecostalism | 390,000 | 0.3 |
| –Catholicism | 180,000 | 0.1 |
| Believers, but do not profess a particular religion | 35,920,000 | 25.2 |
| Islam | 9,320,000[a] | 6.5 |
| Paganism | 1,740,000 | 1.2 |
| –Rodnovery | 750,000[37] | 0.5 |
| –Tengrism, Siberian shamanism, Assianism and other paganisms | 950,000[37] | 0.7 |
| Buddhism | 660,000 | 0.5 |
| Hinduism | 90,000 | 0.1 |
| Religious Jews | 90,000 | 0.1 |
| Atheism | 18,590,000 | 13 |
| Not stated | 7,790,000 | 5.5 |
| Total population | 142,800,000 | |
| Religion | 1998[38] | 2012[3] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Orthodox Christianity | 74,278,513 | 50.3 | 61,350,000 | 43.0 |
| Islam | 5,906,840 | 4.0 | 9,400,000 | 6.5[a] |
| Atheism | 67,485,647 | 45.7 | 18,600,000 | 13.0 |
| Unaffiliated believers | 36,000,000 | 25.0 | ||
| Other religions | 12,000,000 | 8.4 | ||
| Not stated | 7,900,000 | 5.5 | ||
| Total population | 147,671,000 | 142,800,000 | ||
| Religious affiliation 2017–2025[39] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Orthodox Christianity | 75% | 72% | 70% | 68% | 66% | 68% | 68% | 66% | 67% |
| Islam | 6% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 7% |
| Buddhism | <1% | 1% | 1% | <1% | 1% | <1% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Protestantism | 1% | <1% | 1% | <1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% |
| Catholicism | <1% | 1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | 1% | <1% | <1% |
| Judaism | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% | <1% |
| Unaffiliated believers | 4% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 3% |
| Unsured | 5% | 6% | 6% | 5% | 6% | 4% | 5% | 3% | 4% |
| Atheists | 7% | 8% | 12% | 12% | 14% | 12% | 11% | 13% | 11% |
| Other | - | - | 2% | 5% | 2% | 4% | 3% | 5% | 4% |
| Not answered | 2% | 3% | <1% | 2% | <1% | 1% | <1% | 1% | 2% |
| Religious affiliation 1997–2024 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997[40] | 2000[40] | 2005[40] | 2010[40] | 2014[40] | 2018[41] | 2019[42] | 2020[43] | 2021[44] | 2022[45] | 2023[46] | 2024[47] | |
| Orthodoxy | 52% | 56% | 64% | 64% | 68% | 63% | 64% | 59% | 65% | 63% | 60% | 62% |
| No religion | 35% | 32% | 26% | 21% | 19% | 23% | 21% | 26% | 19% | 23% | 24% | 21% |
| Islam | 7% | 5% | 4% | 7% | 6% | 8% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 9% |
| Other Christianity | 0% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
| Other religions | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 1% |
| Undeclared | 5% | 5% | 4% | 6% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 5% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 4% |
| Russian Orthodox | Other Orthodox | Old Believers | Protestants | Catholics | Pentecostals | Simply Christians | Unaffiliated Believers | Atheists | Simply Muslims | Sunni Muslims | Shia Muslims | Pagans / Tengrists | Buddhists | Religious Jews | Hindus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | 51 | 2 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 3.6 | 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| Northwestern | 43 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <1 | <0.5 | 3 | 27 | 15 | 1 | <1 | <0.5 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| Southern | 50 | 1.3 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 4 | 22 | 12 | 2 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| North Caucasian1 | 25 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 20 | <1 | 5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| Volga | 42 | 1.3 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 3.5 | 22 | 11 | 12 | <1 | <1 | 1.3 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| Ural | 33 | 3 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | 6 | 31 | 13 | 4 | 2 | <1 | 1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <1 |
| Siberian | 29 | 2 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 5 | 32 | 18 | 1 | <1 | <0.5 | 2 | 2 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| Far Eastern | 28 | 1 | <1 | <1 | <0.5 | <1 | 4 | 27 | 26 | 1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 3 | <1 | <0.5 | <0.5 |
| All Russia | 41 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 4.1 | 25 | 13 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
All the data, approximated, are from the Arena Atlas 2012.[3]
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| Russian Orthodox | Other Orthodox | Old Believers | Protestants | Catholics | Pentecostals | Simply Christians | Unaffiliated Believers | Atheists | Simply Muslims | Sunni Muslims | Shia Muslims | Pagans / Tengrists | Buddhists | Religious Jews | Hindus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnic Russians | 46 | 1.5 | <1 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 4.3 | 27 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tatars | 1 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 60 | 36 | 1.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <1 |
| Ukrainians | 45 | 2 | <1 | <1 | <1 | 0 | 7 | 26 | 12 | <1 | 0 | 0 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chuvashes | 58 | 4 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 8 | 0 | <1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bashkirs | 1 | 0 | 0 | <1 | <1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 92 | 2 | <1 | 1 | <1 | 0 | <1 |
| Armenians | 35 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1.8 | 0 | 13 | 25 | 7 | 1 | <1 | 0 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Avars | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 83 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mordvins | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Germans | 18 | 2 | 0 | 3.2 | 7.2 | 1.2 | 5 | 34 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ethnic Jews | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 25 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 0 |
| Kazakhs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 85 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <1 |
| Belarusians | 46 | 4.6 | 1.4 | <1 | 1.3 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | <1 |
| All Russians | 41 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 4.1 | 25 | 13 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
In addition to the respondents’ nominal self-determination of their religious affiliation, experts are also interested in the degree of real religiosity ("religious observance", “church-going”) of Russian residents. Based on this principle, very few Russians would be religious. It has been found that between 0.5% and 2% of people in big cities attendEaster services, and overall just between 2% and 10% of the total population (3 to 15 million people) are actively practising Orthodox Christians. The proportion of practising Muslims among ethnic groups which are historically Islamic is larger, 40% to 90% depending on the group, and yet smaller than any assumption based on the ethnic principle.[33]
In contrast to the above data, in a 2025 survey conducted by theRussian Public Opinion Research Center among believers, the degree of religiosity was determined by the number of religious practices performed (wearing religious attributes, praying, observing fasts, visiting and helping temples, reading spiritual books, and so on). As a result, the majority of Russians turned out to be practicing believers:[39]
| Percent of Russians who | Regularly | Sometimes | Never | No answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wear religious symbols (a cross, a crescent moon, etc.) | 53% | 13% | 33% | 1% |
| Live according to religious commandments | 49% | 36% | 11% | 4% |
| Celebrate religious holidays | 49% | 42% | 8% | 1% |
| Pray | 28% | 47% | 25% | 0% |
| Go to church, mosque, etc. | 13% | 65% | 20% | 2% |
| Read spiritual literature | 11% | 45% | 44% | 0% |
| Observe fasting | 10% | 28% | 61% | 1% |
| Communicate with a confessor, spiritual mentor | 8% | 38% | 53% | 1% |
| Help out at church, mosque, etc. | 8% | 34% | 57% | 1% |
| Participate in church sacraments and rituals | 7% | 39% | 52% | 2% |
| Religious affiliation (2024)[47][48] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orthodoxy | No religion | Islam | Other Christianity | Other religions | Undeclared | |
| Total | 62% | 21% | 9% | 3% | 1% | 4% |
| Gender | ||||||
| Male | 57% | 25% | 9% | 3% | 2% | 4% |
| Female | 65% | 18% | 10% | 3% | 1% | 3% |
| Age | ||||||
| 18–30 | 47% | 30% | 13% | 3% | 2% | 5% |
| 31–45 | 63% | 19% | 11% | 3% | 1% | 4% |
| 46–60 | 64% | 22% | 9% | 3% | 1% | 2% |
| 60+ | 70% | 17% | 6% | 2% | 1% | 4% |
| Education | ||||||
| Secondary or lower | 60% | 19% | 14% | 3% | 1% | 3% |
| Vocational | 63% | 22% | 7% | 2% | 1% | 4% |
| Higher | 62% | 22% | 8% | 3% | 2% | 3% |
| Federal district | ||||||
| Central | 74% | 16% | 4% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
| Northwestern | 59% | 33% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 4% |
| Southern | 70% | 14% | 6% | 4% | 2% | 5% |
| North Caucasian | 22% | 9% | 68% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Volga | 59% | 21% | 13% | 1% | 1% | 4% |
| Ural | 57% | 28% | 6% | 2% | 1% | 6% |
| Siberian | 55% | 25% | 7% | 8% | 2% | 3% |
| Far Eastern | 59% | 33% | 2% | 2% | 0% | 5% |
Russia's largest religion is Christianity.[62][2][63] Christianity was the religious self-identification of 47.1% of the Russian population in 2012.[3] Other polls give different results: regarding the total number of Christians in Russia by 2020 thePew Research Center counted 102,4 million people or 69,9% of the population[64] (in 2011 it estimated 71%);[65] in the same year 2020 theLevada Center estimated that 63% of Russians were Christians;[49] in 2020 the Public Opinion Foundation[66] estimated that 63% of the population was Christian; in 2011Ipsos MORI estimated that 69% of Russians were Christians;[67] and in 2021 theRussian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) estimated that ~67% of Russians were Christians.[68]
Orthodox Christianity, includingOld Believers, is the dominant religion of the country, and, besides it,Lutheranism also has had a considerable role in the multiethnic history of Russia.Evangelicalism andCatholicism (among Russians) are relatively recent additions to Christianity in Russia.[69][70]
Russia has the world'slargest Orthodox population.[4]
In accordance with some reference books, Christian Orthodoxy is professed by about 75% of Russia's believers.[1] According to the Arena Atlas Survey, Orthodox Christian believers constituted 42.6% of the total population of Russia in 2012, while according to survey by thePew Forum in 2017, Orthodox Christian believers constituted 71% of the total population of Russia.[71]
In terms of their ethnicity, Orthodox are not only the majority of believers of theRussians and many indigenous peoples of Russia (Karelians,Mari,Mordvins,Komi,Chuvash,Ossetians,Khakassians,Yakuts and others), but also large diasporas ofBelarusians,Georgians,Moldovans andUkrainians in Russia. Among some non-Orthodox Russian peoples there areethnoreligious groups professing Orthodoxy, such as:Kryashens among the Tatars, MozdokKabardins and WesternBuryats.[2]
Most of them were members of theRussian Orthodox Church,[62] while small minorities were Old Believers and Orthodox Christian believers who either did not belong to any church or belonged to non-Russian Orthodox churches (including theGeorgian Orthodox Church). Unaffiliated Orthodox Christians or non-Russian Orthodox Christians were 1.5% (2,100,000) of the total population. Minor Orthodox Christian churches are represented among ethnic minorities of Ukrainians and Georgians. Unaffiliated Orthodox Christians and minorities of non-Russian Orthodox Christians comprised over 4% of the population inTyumen Oblast (9%),Irkutsk Oblast (6%), theJewish Autonomous Oblast (6%),Chelyabinsk Oblast (5%),Astrakhan Oblast (4%) andChuvashia (4%).[3]Cossacks, historically and some of them also in modern Russia, are among the fiercer supporters of Orthodox theocratic monarchism.[72]
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In 2012, 58,800,000 people or 41% of the total population of Russia declared to believe in the Russian Orthodox Church. It was the religion of 21% to 40% of the population in most of thefederal subjects of the country, with peaks of 41% to over 60% inWestern Russia, including 41% to 60% inYamalia andPerm Krai and over 60% inKursk Oblast (69%),Voronezh Oblast (62%),Lipetsk Oblast (71%),Tambov Oblast (78%),Penza Oblast (63%),Ulyanovsk Oblast (61%),Mordovia (69%) andNizhny Novgorod Oblast (69%).[3]
The contemporary Russian Orthodox Church (the Moscow Patriarchate;Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov'), despite legally dating back only to 1949, claims to be the direct successor of the pre-revolutionary Orthodox Russian Church (Pravoslavnaia Rossiskaia Tserkov').[62] There are also a variety of small Orthodox Christian churches which claim as well to be the direct successors of the pre-revolutionary religious body, including the Russian Orthodox Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church. There have often been disputes between these churches and the Russian Orthodox Church over the reappropriation of disused churches, with the Russian Orthodox Church winning most cases thanks to the complicity of secular authorities.[29]
The Old Believers constituted 0.2% (400,000) of the total population of the country in 2012, with proportions higher than 1% only inSmolensk Oblast (1.6%), theAltai Republic (1.2%),Magadan Oblast (1%) andMari El (1%).[3] The Old Believers are the religious group which experienced the most dramatic decline since the end of the Russian Empire and throughout the Soviet Union. In the final years of the empire they constituted 10% of the population of Russia, while today their number has shrunk to far less than 1% and there are few descendants of Old Believers' families who feel a cultural link with the faith of their ancestors.[73]
Oriental Orthodoxy is represented among such ethnic minority as theArmenians (theArmenian Apostolic Church).
Assyrians in Russia have long lived in the south of the country, as well as in Moscow. Most of them remain faithful to theAssyrian Church of the East and are subordinate to the Bishop ofBaghdad, Russia and Georgia. In 1998, the Mat Maryam temple was built in Moscow.[74]
Catholicism was the religion of 140,000 Russian citizens, about 0.1% of the total population, in 2012. They are concentrated in Western Russia with numbers ranging between 0.1% and 0.7% in most of the federal subjects of that region.[3] The number of "ethnic Catholics" in Russia, that is to say Poles and Germans, and smaller minorities, is continually declining due to deaths, emigration, and secularisation. At the same time there has been a discrete rise of ethnic Russian converts to the Catholic Church.[34]
TheArchdiocese of Moscow administers theLatin Church of the Catholic Church in Russia. Further suffragan bishoprics exist inIrkutsk,Novosibirsk andSaratov. The Diocese of Irkutsk is in fact the largest Catholic bishopric on earth, covering an area of 9,960,000 squared kilometres. Almost all Russian Catholics are members of the Latin Church. However, the Catholic Church recognises the extremely smallRussian Greek Catholic Church as aByzantine Rite churchsui juris ("of its own jurisdiction") infull communion with the Catholic Church.
Various denominations of Protestantism, both historical andEvangelical, as well asPentecostalism, were the religion of 0.2% (300,000) of the population of Russia in 2012. Their number was slightly more than 1% only inTuva (1.8%),Udmurtia (1.4%) and theAltai Republic (1%).[3] At the same time, according to American encyclopedic data from 2008, the number of Protestants was 2 million, with 21% of religious organizations registered in Russia.[75]
Lutheranism has been on a continuous decline among Finnish and German ethnic minorities, while it has seen some Russian converts, so that some traditionally Finnish churches, like theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, today have more Russian than Finnish believers.[34]Adventists,Baptists (Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists),Evangelical Christians,Russian Mennonites, theNew Apostolic Church,Presbyterians (mainly of Korean origin),Anglicans,Quakers,Disciples of Christ, andCharismatics.Methodists (includingThe Salvation Army) and Pentecostals are of relatively recent introduction, having at most 120 years of history in Russia.[76][73]
Spiritual Christianity is the group of Russian movements (Doukhobors and others), so-called folk Protestants. Their origins are varied: some were influenced by western Protestants, others from disgust of the behavior of official Orthodox priests.[77]
Yehowists, a.k.a. the Message of Zion, is a Russianmillenarian movement, that closed both to Spiritual Christianity and Judaism, founded in the 1840s.[78]
People who considered themselves Christians without affiliation to any church or denomination formed 4.1% (5,900,000) of the population, with numbers ranging between 1% and 8% in most of Russia's federal subjects, and over 8% only inNenetia (14%),North Ossetia–Alania (10%),Tver Oblast (9%) and theJewish Autonomous Oblast (9%).[3]Jehovah's Witnesses were estimated to have 255,000 believers in Russia in the mid-2000s.[79]
Islam is the second largest religion in Russia after Orthodox Christianity.[1][3] It is the historically dominant religion among someCaucasian ethnic groups (notably theChechens, theIngush and theAdyghe), and someTurkic peoples (notably theTatars and theBashkirs).[1][3]
In accordance with some reference books, Islam is professed by about 19% of Russia's believers in the mid-1990s.[1] In the 2012 Arena Atlas survey, Muslims in Russia were 9,400,000 or 6.5% of the total population. However, theArena Atlas did not survey the populations of two federal subjects with Islamic majorities which together had a population of nearly 2 million, namelyChechnya andIngushetia,[3] thus the total number of Muslims may be slightly larger. Among these Muslims, 6,700,000 or 4.6% of the total population of Russia were not affiliated with anyIslamic schools and branches. This is mainly because it is not essential for Muslims to be affiliated with any specific sect or organisation. Those who are unaffiliated are mostly Sunni Muslims. These unaffiliated Muslims constitute significant percentages of over 10% inKabardino-Balkaria (50%),Bashkortostan (54%),Karachay-Cherkessia (50%),Tatarstan (51%),Dagestan (36%),Yamalia (13%),Orenburg Oblast (11%),Adygea (23%) andAstrakhan Oblast (11%). Most of the regions ofSiberia have an unaffiliated Muslim population of 1% to 2%.[3]
Sunni Islam was the religion of 2,400,000 of the Muslims, or 1.6% of the total population of Russia. It had significant following of more than 10% of the population only inDagestan (60%) andKarachay-Cherkessia (13%). Percentages higher than 2% are found inKabardino-Balkaria (10%),Yugra (Khantia-Mansia) (5%),Yamalia (4%),Astrakhan Oblast (3%),Chelyabinsk Oblast (3%) andTyumen Oblast (2%).Yakutia had a population of Sunnis ranging between 1% and 2%. Many other federal subjects had a Muslim population of 0.1% to 0.9%.[3]Shia Islam, otherwise, was a branch of 300,000 people, or 0.2% of the total population of Russia. It was primarily represented inDagestan (2%),Adygea (1%),Karachay-Cherkessia (1%),Kabardino-Balkaria (1%),Novgorod Oblast (1%),Penza Oblast (1%),Tatarstan (1%) andYugra (1%).[3]
The federal subjects of Russia with an Islamic absolute majority—more than 50%—were Chechnya, Ingushetia,Dagestan (98%),Kabardino-Balkaria (60%),Tatarstan (51%),Karachay-Cherkessia (64%) andBashkortostan (54%). Significant percentages (over 5%) were found in (38.6%),Yamalia (17.4%),Astrakhan Oblast (14.6%),Adygea (24%),Orenburg Oblast (13.9%) andYugra (10.9%).[3]
In 2012 there were 140,000 religious Jews in Russia,[3] while the number of ethnicJews was significantly larger. Indeed, most ethnic Jews in Russia are not Jewish by religion,Judaism being the religion of just a minority of ethnic Jews; most of them are atheists and not religious, many are Christians, and a significant proportion of them are Buddhists.[80] According to the Arena Atlas survey In 2012, only 13% of ethnic Jews believed in Judaism, 13% were Orthodox Christians, 4% simply Christians, 27% atheists, 25% believers but not affiliated with an organized religion, 4% Buddhists and 3% Pagans.[3] Religious Jews were mostly concentrated inKamchatka Krai (0.4%),Saint Petersburg (0.4%),Kursk Oblast (0.4%),Khabarovsk Krai (0.3%),Stavropol Krai (0.3%),Buryatia (0.2%), theJewish Autonomous Oblast (0.2%),Kalmykia (0.2%) andKabardino-Balkaria (0.2%).[3]
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Certain peoples of Russia, for example, theAltaians,Nganasans[81] andNenets,[82] for the most part, continue to practiceethnic (indigenous) religions. Thus, according to a survey conducted in 2008 by the Research State Institute of Altaic Studies, among Altai believers, 81% were adherents ofBurkhanism (Altai ethnic religion), and 5.3% of shamanism.[83]
Paganism and Tengrism, counted together as "traditional religions of the forefathers"[37] were the third-largest religious group after Christianity and Islam, with 1,700,000 believers or 1.2% of the total population of Russia in 2012.[3] These religions are protected under the 1997 law, whose commentary specifies that "other religions and creeds which constitute an inseparable part of the historical heritage of Russia's peoples" also applies to "ancient Pagan cults, which have been preserved or are being revived".[7] Tengrism is a term which encompasses the traditional ethnic andshamanic religions of theTurkic andMongolic peoples, and modern movements reviving them in Russia. Paganism in Russia is primarily represented by the revival of theethnic religions of the Russian Slavic people and communities, theOssetians (Scythian), but also by those ofCaucasian andFinno-Ugric ethnic minorities.
In 2012, Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery), Caucasian Neopaganism, and Ossetian Assianism were represented by significant numbers of believers inNorth Ossetia–Alania (29%),Karachay-Cherkessia (12%),Kabardino-Balkaria (3%),Orenburg Oblast (over 3%),Kemerovo Oblast (over 3%), 2% to 3% inDagestan,Astrakhan Oblast,Kaluga Oblast,Tyumen Oblast,Irkutsk Oblast andMagadan Oblast. The Slavic Native Faith was also present in many of the federal subjects of Western Russia in percentages ranging between 1% and 2%.[3]
Rodnovery alone represented 44% of the followers of the "traditional religions of the forefathers", thus approximately 750,000 people.[37] Rodnover organisations include the Union of Slavic Rodnover (Native Faith) Communities headquartered inKaluga. The Moscow Community was the first to be registered by the state in 1994. Russian Rodnovers believe inRod, the supreme God, and in lesser deities who includePerun andDazhbog. Russian centers of Rodnovery are situated also inDolgoprudny,Pskov and other cities, andMoscow has several shrines.[84]
Uralic Neopaganism is practised by the Finnic ethnic minorities (primarily theMari, theMordvins, theUdmurts and theKomi). Among these peoples, paganism survived as an unbroken tradition throughout the Soviet period.[7] TheMari Native Faith was practised by 6% of the population ofMari El in 2012.[3] Other studies reported a higher proportion of 15%.[85] Paganism was practised by between 2% and 3% of the population ofUdmurtia (Udmurt Vos) andPerm Krai, and by between 1% and 2% of the population of theKomi Republic.[3]
There are Rodnover groups that mix Finnic and Slavic elements, while other Rodnover organisations also cater to people who follow Scandinavian (Heathen) and Greek (Hellenic) traditions.[86]
Paganism is supported by the governments of some federal subjects, for instance Mari El. Although paganism often faces the hostility of the Orthodox clergy,Patriarch Alexy II stressed that Protestant missionaries pose a greater danger than ethnic religions, and the latter should be respected.[87] Pagans have faced violence in some Islamic regions of the Caucasus. For instance, Aslan Tsipinov was murdered by Islamists in 2010, inKabardino-Balkaria. Months before his death, Tsipinov was intimated by the extremists to stop his work of popularisation ofCircassian (Kabardian) Pagan rituals.[88]
Tengrism and Turco-Mongol shamanic religions are found primarily in Siberia and theRussian Far East. In 2012, 13% of the inhabitants of theAltai Republic believed inindigenous religions—which includeBurkhanism or "White Faith"[89]—, like 13% inYakutia, 8% inTuva, 3% inKalmykia, between 2% and 3% inKhakassia,Buryatia andKamchatka.[3] TheArena Atlas did not count the population ofChukotka, where much of theChukchi practise theirindigenous religion.[90]
In 2012, Buddhism was practised by 700,000 people in Russia, or 0.5% of the total population.[3] It is the traditional religion of some Mongolic and Turkic ethnic groups in Russia such as theBuryats, theKalmyks, and theTuvans, as well as a part of the TungusicEvenks.[92] In 2012 it was the religion of 62% of the total population ofTuva, 38% ofKalmykia and 20% ofBuryatia.[3] Buddhism also has believers accounting for 6% inZabaykalsky Krai, primarily consisting in ethnic Buryats, having a specialAgin-Buryat Okrug, and of 0.5% to 0.9% inTomsk Oblast andYakutia. Buddhist communities may be found in other federal subjects of Russia, between 0.1% and 0.5% inbetween 0.1% and 0.5% inIrkutsk Oblast (primarily Buryats, having a specialUst-Orda Buryat Okrug),Sakhalin Oblast,Khabarovsk Krai,Amur Oblast,Altai,Khakassia,Novosibirsk Oblast,Tomsk Oblast,Tyumen Oblast,Orenburg Oblast,Arkhangelsk Oblast,Murmansk Oblast,Moscow andMoscow Oblast,Saint Petersburg andLeningrad Oblast, and inKaliningrad Oblast.[3] In cities like Moscow, Saint Petersburg andSamara, often up to 1% of the population identify as Buddhists.[79]
Buddhism in Russia is almost exclusively of theTibetanVajrayana schools, especiallyGelug but increasingly alsoNyingma andKagyu (Diamond Way Buddhism). There are many Russian converts, and the newer schools have been often criticised by representatives of the Gelug as the result of a Russianised (Rossiysky) Buddhism and of Western Buddhist missionaries.[93]
Hinduism, especially in the forms of Krishnaism,Vedism andTantrism, but also in other forms, has gained a following among Russians since the end of the Soviet period,[15] primarily through the missionary work of itinerantgurus andswamis, and organisations like theInternational Society for Krishna Consciousness and theBrahma Kumaris. The Tantra Sangha originated in Russia itself. The excavation of an ancient idol representingVishnu in theVolga region in 2007 fueled the interest for Hinduism in Russia.[94]
However, Russian Hare Krishna face the hostility of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2011, prosecutors inTomsk unsuccessfully tried to outlaw theBhagavad-Gītā As It Is, the central text of the Krishnaite movement, on charge of extremism.[95] Russian Krishnaites in Moscow have long struggled for the construction of a large Krishna temple in the capital, which would compensate premises which were assigned to them in 1989 and later confiscated for municipal construction plans; the allocation of land for the temple has been repeatedly hindered and delayed, and Archbishop Nikon ofUfa asked the secular authorities to prevent the construction "in the very heart of Orthodox Russia" of an "idolatrous heathen temple to Krishna".[96] In August 2016, the premises of the Divya Loka monastery, a Vedic monastery founded in 2001 inNizhny Novgorod, were dismantled by local authorities after having been declared illegal in 2015.[97]
Hinduism in Russia was practised by 140,000 people, or 0.1% of the total population, in 2012. It constituted 2% of the population in theAltai Republic, 0.5% inSamara Oblast, 0.4% inKhakassia,Kalmykia,Bryansk Oblast,Kamchatka,Kurgan Oblast,Tyumen Oblast,Chelyabinsk Oblast, 0.3% inSverdlovsk Oblast, 0.2% to 0.3% inYamalia,Krasnodar Krai,Stavropol Krai,Rostov Oblast,Sakhalin Oblast, and 0.1% to 0.2% in other federal subjects.[3]
Sikhism is practised in Russia by a number of immigrants from theIndian state ofPunjab and fromAfghanistan, though there is a small number of Russian converts. There are two Sikh organisations in Russia: the "Gurudwara Komiti" of Moscow, catering to Afghan-Indian Sikhs, founded in the 1990s and officially registered in 2000 and "Amrit Nam Sarovar", an international orthodox Sikh missionary organisation which teaches Kundalini Yoga.[98]
Taoism in Russia is practised byChinese immigrants and some Russian converts.[99] It started to be disseminated in Russia after the end of the Soviet Union, particularly through the work of MasterAlex Anatole, a Russian himself andTaoist priest, founder of the Center of Traditional Taoist Studies, which has been active in Moscow since 2002.[100] The "Victor Xiao's Studio of Taiji" in Moscow representsLongmen Taoism.[99] Another branch present in Russia isWuliu Taoism, headquartered in Saint Petersburg as the "Dao De Taoist Centre" since 1993, with branches in Moscow,Rostov-on-Don andNizhny Novgorod.[99] The "Shen Taoist Centre", headquartered in Moscow, with branches inNovosibirsk andKrasnodar, is a branch of the international organisation "Universal Healing Tao" ofMantak Chia.[99]
Yazidism is practised by a minority that established itself in Russia already during theRusso-Turkish wars and especially during theFirst World War, though their number has grown in the 2010s with new immigrants fromIraq fleeing anti-Yazidi persecution by Muslims. Yazidi communities are registered inYekaterinburg,Irkutsk,Nizhny Novgorod,Samara,Tula,Ulyanovsk,Yaroslavl andKrasnodar Krai. In 2016, the Research Institute of Yazidi History and Religion was established as a branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of theRussian Academy of Sciences.[101]
Zoroastrianism is practised in Russia by a number of recent Russian converts, though the religion was historically influent in the region of theNorthern Caucasus, among theScythians and later inAlania andCaucasian Albania.[102] There are two Russian Zoroastrian organisations: the "Zoroastrian Community of Saint Petersburg" registered in 1994 and originally founded at the beginning of the 1990s by Pavel Globa as the "Avestan School of Astrology"; and the "Russian Anjoman", headquartered in Moscow with branches in several other cities, that collaborates with the "Anjoman Bozorg Bazgasht", an organisation of Iranian Zoroastrian immigrants in Europe.[102] The Russian Anjoman calls its faith "Blagovery", and in general Zoroastrianism in Russia has close links withRodnovery.[103]
In modern Russia, "all kinds of occult, Pagan and pseudo-Christian faiths are widespread". Some of them are "disciplined organisations with a well-defined membership".[79] The scholars of religion Sergei Filatov and Roman Lunkin, estimated in the mid-2000s that well-organised new religious movements had about 300,000 members. Nevertheless, well-organised movements constitute only "a drop in the 'new religious' ocean". Most of them are indeed "amorphous, eclectic and fluid",[79] difficult to measure, concerned with health, healing, and lifestyle, made up of fragments borrowed from Eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism andyoga. According to Filatov and Lunkin, these movements, albeit mostly unorganised, represent a "self-contained system" rather than a "transitional stage on the way to some other religion".[104]
Native new religious movements of Russia areBazhovism,Ivanovism,Roerichism,Ringing Cedars' Anastasianism, and others.[105] TheFourth Way, theTheosophical Society, theAnthroposophical Society, and theRadha Soami Satsang Beas are also represented.[106] Roerichism, which was started before theperestroika, is a paradigmatic example of a movement which adapts Eastern religious beliefs to the conditions of contemporary Russia. It is not a centrally structured movement, but takes the form of a dust of clubs and associations.[104] Another movement, Ivanovism, is a system of healing through cold and relationship between humanity and nature founded by the mysticPorfiry Ivanov (1898–1983), called "messenger of the Cosmos" by his followers. His disciples, the Ivanovites, are recognisable by their lightweight clothing and sandals worn in winter.[107] Ringing Cedars' Anastasianism is a new religious, spiritual, and social movement close to Rodnovery that began in 1997 in Central Russia, based on the series of ten books entitledThe Ringing Cedars of Russia written byVladimir Megre.[108] Other movements rely uponastrology, which is believed by about 60% of Russians, emphasising the imminent start of theAge of Aquarius, the end of the world as it is currently known, and the formation of a superior "Aquarian race".[104]
According to some Western commentators, respect forfreedom of religion by secular authorities has declined in Russia since the late 1990s and early 2000s.[10][11] In addition, the government continues to grant privileges to the Russia Orthodox Church not accorded to any other church or religious association.[109] In 2006, a Mari Pagan priest, Vitaly Tanakov, was successfully convicted of extremism and sentenced to 120 hours of compulsory labour for having published a politico-religious tract,A Priest Speaks (Onajeng Ojla), which in 2009 was added to the federal list of material deemed "extremist".[110]
In 2011 there was an unsuccessful attempt to ban theBhagavad-Gītā As It Is on the same charge.[95] In August 2016, the premises of a Vedic monastery founded in 2001 inNizhny Novgorod were demolished by local authorities after having been declared illegal in 2015.[97] It has been observed that the categories of "extremist" and "totalitarian sect" have been consistently used to try to outlaw religious groups which the Russian Orthodox Church classifies as "not traditional", including the newest Protestant churches and Jehovah's Witnesses.[111] There is a ban of Jehovah's Witnesses activities in Russia.[112]
In 2017, a report from theU.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated that: "The Russian government views independent religious activity as a major threat to social and political stability, an approach inherited from the Soviet period".[113] Thus, for the first time, the USCIRF classified Russia as one of the world's worst violators of freedom of religion, a "country of particular concern" under theInternational Religious Freedom Act. The report also affirmed that Russia "is the sole state to have not only continually intensified its repression of religious freedom ..., but also to have expanded its repressive policies. ...Those policies, ranging from administrative harassment to arbitrary imprisonment toextrajudicial killing, are implemented in a fashion that is systematic, ongoing, and egregious".[113] Many other countries and international organizations have spoken out on Russia's religious abuses.[114][115]
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In 2011, a group linked to the Russian Orthodox Church demanded a ban of theBhagavad-Gītā As It Is, the book of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, inTomsk Oblast, on charge of extremism. The case was eventually dismissed by the federal judge on 28 December 2011.[116]
The Russian ambassadorAlexander Kadakin condemned the "madmen" who sought the ban, and underlined that Russia is a secular country.[117] To protest the attempted ban, 15,000 Indians in Moscow, and followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness throughout Russia, appealed to the government ofIndia asking an intervention to resolve the issue.[118] The move triggered strong protests by members of theParliament of India who wanted the government to take a strong position. The final court hearing in Tomsk was then scheduled on 28 December, after the court agreed to seek the opinion of the Tomskombudsman on human rights and ofIndologists from Moscow and Saint Petersburg.[119]
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