Origin from 1991
The Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 ended seven decades of state atheism and active suppression of religion, and the Russian Orthodox Church rebuilt its institutional standing within a single generation, chiefly under Patriarch Aleksy the Second. A major Pew Research Center survey with fieldwork conducted 2015 to 2016 found 71 percent of Russians identifying as Orthodox Christian by that point, with Orthodox identity closely bound to national identity across the wider region, a striking reversal within twenty five years of a state that had spent decades trying to eliminate religious practice altogether.
Facts
Dates
Start Year1991 is the Soviet Union's dissolution, ending seven decades of state atheism and active religious suppression and opening the Russian Orthodox Church's institutional revival under Patriarch Aleksy the Second. End Year2017 is the release of the Pew Research Center's Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe survey, fieldwork conducted 2015 to 2016, which found 71 percent of Russians identifying as Orthodox Christian, a dated, quantified twenty-first century measure of the revival that began in 1991; the revival itself continues beyond this point. Learn More
How Christianity Revived in Post-Soviet Russia
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 ended seven decades of state atheism and active suppression of religion across its former territory, a suppression that had closed, converted to other uses or destroyed the great majority of the church's own buildings and dissolved its seminaries and monastic communities. The Russian Orthodox Church rebuilt its institutional standing within a single generation afterward, chiefly under the leadership of Patriarch Aleksy the Second, who led the church through the transition itself, reopening monasteries, seminaries and parish churches that Soviet policy had closed or destroyed.
A major Pew Research Center survey, with fieldwork conducted from 2015 to 2016 across the region, found 71 percent of Russians identifying as Orthodox Christian by that point, with Orthodox identity closely bound to national identity across the wider post-Soviet region rather than confined to active religious practice alone, a finding published in a broader comparative study of religious belief and national belonging across Central and Eastern Europe.
What this changed for Christianity's spread was a striking reversal within twenty five years of a state that had spent decades trying to eliminate religious practice altogether. The scale and speed of the church's institutional rebuilding, reaching most of the population's stated identity within a single generation, has few parallels anywhere else in modern Christian history.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Russian Orthodox Church directly: "suppression of religion, and the Russian Orthodox Church rebuilt its institutional standing within a single generation, chiefly under Patriarch Aleksy the Second."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
The most recent hop in this atlas's Christianity spread timeline, carrying it solidly into the twenty-first century.
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