Orthodoxy
To say that the Orthodox religion is the dominant religion in Russia in terms of the number of baptisms is an understatement if we consider the identity, patriotic and political role it has been called upon to play. Since its officialization in Russia in the tenth century, it has had a close relationship with politics, a relationship that is now perpetuated by Vladimir Putin, who had his mandate blessed. Patriotism is an intrinsic value of Orthodoxy, and every Orthodox person has a duty to defend his or her homeland if it is attacked. Also Stalin, who started with a repressive policy, did not hesitate to use religion to mobilize the population against the enemy during the "Great Patriotic War". Finally, Orthodoxy has always been the identity retreat of the Russians when they felt the very essence of their culture threatened: by receiving this religion from Byzantium, Russia inherited at the same time a whole cultural, literary and architectural tradition. The liturgy even becomes the foundation of Russian national identity. Religion was thus the sign of identity resistance during the Mongol yoke; and it has always been the point of support for the Slavophiles in their opposition to the Westernizers. In 1988, Gorbachev made a highly symbolic act by celebrating the millennium of the Orthodox religion in Russia with pomp and circumstance, after 70 years of repression. Then in 1991, Russia made a mass return to Orthodoxy: reopening of churches, profusion of baptisms, liturgical frenzy. But behind this return to faith, it is above all a return to the deep roots of Russian culture that motivates a large part of the population. The main reason for this infatuation is often the search for new values, so that when they can be found elsewhere, little attention will be paid to religion. And besides, regular practitioners are rare, one enters a church to light a candle for someone, to address a prayer to a saint, or to seek a moment of comfort in a difficult period, but one does not necessarily attend the liturgy. Besides, students often seem to populate churches a few days before exams...
What is orthodoxy?
For 1,000 years there has been only one Church, with the Catholic faith, that is to say universal, and the Orthodox faith, that is to say "with the just faith". There was the Christian Church of the East and the Christian Church of the West. So when the great prince Vladimir introduced Christianity into Russia, there was still only one Church. The rupture had not taken place, but Russia had already chosen its side by joining the Eastern Christian Church of Byzantium. The reasons for the schism between the two Churches are political with conflicts of influence and will be masked by questions of dogma. Disputes began in 1054, with exchanges of anathemas between the Russian and Roman clergy, but the real rupture occurred in the 13th century, when the Crusaders sacked Constantinople on their way to the Crusades, thus declaring war on Eastern Christianity. Unceasing rivalries with Poland, affiliated to Roman Catholicism, consummated the rupture, while the fall of Constantinople under the blows of the Ottoman Turks in 1453 gave rise to new and messianic ambitions among the Russian clergy, who wanted to make Moscow, heir to Byzantium, the "Third Rome". The Orthodox Church of Russia is national and autocephalous, that is, it has its own spiritual head, the Patriarch. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexei II, died on 5 December 2008. His successor Cyril I was elected and then enthroned Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church on1 February 2009.
Differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches
For Catholics, the Holy Spirit proceeds from God and Christ, for Orthodox, only from God. The Church is one. The power of the pope transmitted uninterruptedly from Peter is infallible when the pope proclaims in a definitive way a point of doctrine concerning faith or morals. The Orthodox churches are autocephalous, they govern themselves. The Orthodox faith is made up of the dogmatic definitions of the first seven ecumenical councils, which it has in common with the Catholic faith. In Orthodox baptism, the baptized person is always immersed entirely in water and confirmation in the Orthodox Church takes place immediately after the birth of the child. The host is prepared unleavened for Catholics and Orthodox.
Islam
Far from these internal quarrels within the Christian family, Islam, the second largest religion in Russia, has some 15 million followers, spread over Tatarstan, 500 km east of Moscow, the North Caucasus, and numerous communities scattered throughout the country. Having places of worship, the Muslims of Russia, very generally Sunni, are experiencing a religious revival which often coincides with national demands, as in Tatarstan or Chechnya. This rise also coincides with the increase in the number of satellite dishes receiving new broadcasts from Turkey. There are currently about 7 000 mosques in Russia and 3 080 registered Muslim associations. Usually, Muslims in Russia are Sufi: they belong to mystical brotherhoods (tarîqa) and practice the cult of saints. The Sufi rite is characterized by the zikr (the call to God) which, practiced differently according to the brotherhoods (by whispering, dancing...) allows to reach a state close to the trance, where one feels the presence of God. Since the radicalisation of certain warlords during the 2nd Chechen War, Russian Sufi Islam, generally considered as very tolerant, is competing with the advance of Salafism. This conservative branch of Islam, imported from the Middle East, is gaining more and more followers in Russia. The Salafists tend to be mistakenly equated with jihadists and are thus particularly persecuted, especially in the North Caucasus. In order to control the activity of Muslims in Russia, the ruling power, through semi-political, semi-religious figures such as the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, has facilitated the establishment of a conservative, pro-Russian, state Islam.
Judaism
Judaism today has between 150,000 and 200,000 faithful in Russia, despite the erosion of a Jewish community which is emigrating en masse to Israel. But a distinction must be made here between Jewish "nationality", inherited from the Soviet system of nationalities, and the practitioners of the Jewish religion: Russia has more than 500,000 nationals of Jewish origin. And although Jews can now freely practise their religion and culture, economic difficulties still push them to leave the country in large numbers.
Buddhism
Buddhism is the official religion of three peoples of the former USSR: the Tuvas, the Kalmouks and the Buryates. Buddhism originated in Mongolia and was established in Russia in the 17th and 19th centuries, while Russia was colonizing southern Siberia. From the beginning of the 18th century, intensive conversions to Buddhism were carried out by Mongolian and Tibetan missionaries. In the 18th century, lamas were granted the right to preach Buddhism in Transbaikaly if they had pledged allegiance to the Russian throne. This policy, which was supposed to strengthen the confines of Russia, mainly benefited the rise of this religion. The spread of Buddhism in Siberia dealt a fatal blow to the shamanism that was the basis of many popular traditions of the Siberian peoples. But Buddhism also played a role in the spread of culture, teaching Eastern philosophy and medicine in these remote borders of Russia. Buddhist culture thus enabled the rise of a national intelligentsia which, after the revolution of 1905, became integrated into Russian political movements, going so far as to propose a fusion of the principles of Buddhism and communism in 1922. Yet the Soviet regime made no exception in its religious policy for Buddhism: many monasteries were destroyed and lamas were repressed. But in the late 1980s, in the wake of the general religious revival in Russia after 70 years of communism, Buddhism experienced a new upsurge. Temples, monasteries, and cultural centres with religious vocations were established in the three regions concerned. In 2008, there were about 1 million Buddhists. About 30 monasteries have been built and the St Petersburg temple is once again in operation. Two landmark events have marked the life of Russian Buddhism in recent years: the visit of the Dalai Lama in September 1992 in Moscow and in 2004 in Kalmykia. In addition to the above-mentioned regions, Buddhism is today strongly established in the Altai, Irkutsk and Chita regions.
The pagan revival
In recent years, the so-called native faiths have been experiencing a real renaissance in Russia. Most often, they are associated with cultural and identity-related, even political, claims. This is the case, for example, with rodnovere (literally, "native faith"), a recently constructed Slavonic neopaganism. The rodnovers organize themselves into communities and come together in festivals celebrating the cycles of nature. The rodnoverein, which is becoming increasingly popular, is to be linked to the environmental movement, but also to ethnic nationalism. Many rodnovers are also linked to extreme right-wing, pan-Slavic or white supremacist movements.
Shamanism
In Siberia, the shamanism present since the dawn of time in the indigenous practices has (not without difficulty) resisted the Christian missionaries and then the Soviet materialism and atheism. Since the end of the USSR, shamanism and animism have flourished among the Siberian populations and the indigenous peoples of the North. For shamanism has its origins in Siberia: the word "shaman" comes from the Saman evenk (toungouse), which means "he who dances, he who leaps". It is moreover from Siberia that shamanism crossed the Bering Strait (at the time Beringia, an emerged land) with those who were the first Amerindians, between 40,000 and 16,000 years before our era. The shaman is the one who mediates between men and spirits (elements, animals, flora, dead people...). His function is hereditary and there are thus women shamans. For a long time, one wondered if it was necessary to assimilate shamanism to a religion. Soviet ethnographers and anthropologists tended to agree with this, which made it possible to argue in favour of its prohibition. In fact, since its revival, shamanism and religion in the classical sense of the term have been practised in a complementary manner by otherwise orthodox, Muslim or Buddhist peoples.
