A recent poll shows 82 percent of Russians classify themselves as religious believers. This figure is greater than any other European country.
Fewer, however, subscribe to organised religion.
The survey carried out in April shows just 50 percent of Russians say they are Orthodox, while 27 percent didn’t associate themselves with any particular organised faith. Among young people between 18 and 24, the number of unaffiliated believers was 34 percent.
The poll also identified that only 4 percent of Russians were avowed Muslims, well below the 15 percent level sociologists cite.
The poll also recorded Catholics, not recognised under Russian law and often legally harassed, at 7 percent of the population.
The poll puts Russia at the top of the list in Europe, where 51 percent of Poles, 50 percent of Italians, 27 percent of Germans, and just 18 percent of Swedes declared themselves definite believers in a divine entity.
“It would be correct to describe Russia as a land of believers, but it cannot be called a country of religious people,” says Mikhail Tarusin, head of sociology at the independent Institute of Public Projects in Moscow. “We were an officially atheist state for 74 years, and it may take some time to rebound from that. Right now I don’t think we could put the proportion of truly religious, church-going people at more than 20 percent.”
Experts, however, say most Russians lead secular lives and pay little respect to the Orthodox Church’s efforts to influence public morals.
Recent calls for a national dress code and a string of lawsuits against ‘artistic blasphemy’ have fallen on deaf ears.