Religiosity and basic values of Russians (based on the European Social Survey and Orthodox Monitor)

The article examines the relationship between religiosity and basic values in Russia. Basic values are measured by the Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire. The analysis is based on the data of the European Social Survey conducted in 2012 and the Orthodox Monitor survey conducted in 2012 as well, which is a representative survey of churched Russian Orthodox Christians. Usually based on the results of mass surveys, the connection of basic values with religiosity in Russia is very weak. One possible reason is the use of inappopriate indicators to measure the degree of religiosity. One of the most important characteristics that distinguish churched Orthodox Christians is regular Communion, which presupposes quite serious preparation, fasting and Confession. People make an attempt to rethink their views, values, and change their behavior. If this happens with a certain regularity, then it can lead to a gradual change in basic values, conditioned by religiosity. Such working out the best of oneself may not occur if a person just attends religious services, but does not receive Communion. Churched Orthodox are much more committed to the values of Conservation and Self-Transcendence, and less to the values of Openness to change and Self-Enhancement. One of the unexpected results was the discovery of significant differences in the values of Universalism, in which the churched Orthodox Christians are noticeably ahead of the average Russians, while in most previous studies the relationship of religiosity to the values of Universalism was either negative or absent, and only rarely was weak positive. Also, despite the general low commitment to the values of Openness to change, the differences are due to the great rejection of the values of Hedonism and Stimulation, while the values of Self Direction differ from the average Russians only slightly