Текст "RELIGIONS IN RUSSIA"

RELIGIONS IN RUSSIA

Christianity

Religion plays a prominent role in the public and spiritual life of today’s Russia.

The majority of believers belong to Orthodox Christian denomination.

After 1917 the Russian Orthodox Church has traversed a hard and tragic road. The church was separated from the state and school, many monasteries and churches were destroyed. In the late 1980s major changes were made in the relationship between the state and the Church.

The millennium of Christianity in Russia in 1988 was celebrated on a grand scale. In 1990 a series of laws were passed on the freedom of religion. The majority of religious Russians are Christians.

The country has over 5000 Russian Orthodox churches. Many are built anew or under repair on parish and local budget money.

Judaism

Historically Russia has always had a fairly large Jewish community, despite government sanctioned persecution of Jewish believers before and during Soviet times. This religion has held a sad place in Russian history because Jews were often pressed by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church was always the main religious branch and had an enormous amount of power? And consequently Judaism suffered the most causing many Russian Jews to immigrate to other countries. Thus nowadays Jews won’t express their beliefs too widely or publicly, even though government sanctioned persecution has ceased.

Buddism

Buddhism is one of the three oldest religions with its history being over two and a half thousand years old. The head of all Buddhists is the Dalai Lama, which literally translates to "the Ocean of Wisdom".

In Russia, Buddhism was first adopted by Buryats - one of the many types of Mongolian people, who settled on Russian lands. The year 1741 is considered the official arrival of the religion in Russia. Also after this date, Buddhism spread to many different Russian groups, including the Kalmyks and Tuvinians. This religion also suffered during Soviet times: many temples were completely destroyed and Buddhist monks were executed. Fortunately in the 1990s, Buddhism received an official status and began to flourish.

Islam

If you keep up with current events, you will know that Islam has been made out to be a dangerous religion; however, the religion itself is very fair, balanced, and peaceful in its purest form. In Russia, Islam is prevalent especially in the country's southern regions. The religion also has lots of followers in the other parts of Russia including St. Petersburg..

Shamanism

Shamanism is actually not very wide spread nowadays, because we are living in the 21st century. As we have mentioned before, in Russia the Russian Orthodox Church dominated all other religions, but you can also find just about any other religion represented in Russia. Regarding Shamanism, it is important to underline that this unique religion is also represented on Russian territory. Shamanism has somehow spread through Central Asia. The religion developed the most in the Tuva Republic, which is located near Altai and borders with Mongolia.