Protestantism in Postsoviet Russia: An Unacknowledged Triumph

After ten years of freedom in Russia some of the results of the religious revival there can now be summed up. In assessing which religious movements have achieved the greatest success, from the religious standpoint, there can be only one conclusion-the greatest gains, up to the year 2000, have been made by the Protestants. The basic achievements of the Orthodox Church have been in the ideological, cultural and political sphere. Russian public opinion nowadays shows a great deal of respect for the Orthodox Church. The majority of Russians consider themselves Orthodox. There is hardly any significant anti-Orthodox or anticlerical feeling in the country. In fact, the Orthodox Church has been granted semi-official status. The state authorities make use of the Church's authority in the political struggle. Throughout the country churches are being built and restored from budgets of various sizes, and are also being financed by big business, as a result of direct pressure from the authorities. ' However, in the purely religious sphere the success of the Russian Orthodox Church has been far more modest. Surveys show that fewer than five per cent (according to some sources, only two per cent) of the popUlation are practisin