Russia: Religion, Diet, and Dress

This chapter focuses on other cultural elements, besides languages, that are important in the geography of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Cultural geographers are frequently interested in learning about the influences of religious beliefs on the organization of space in human societies (Park, 1994). The major religions of the world have left an indelible mark on many cultural landscapes and facets of human life. How people think and what they do are determined, among other things, by their beliefs. The geography of religion is not the study of theology, but the study of how beliefs shape and transform cultural landscapes, politics, economics, and social relations. Think of your hometown: What are some of the marks of the predominant religion on the local landscape—houses of worship, cemeteries, and so forth? If you live in North America or Europe, chances are that the biggest impact you see is that of Christianity (Catholicism and/or Protestantism, depending on the region). In parts of New York City, it may be Judaism. In a few communities on either coast, Islam, Baha'i, or another faith may be the most visible. Overall, though, most Western countries today are religiously pluralistic societies. Also, because of the separation of church and state in the West, no governmental endorsement is given to any faith; the cultural landscapes thus reflect more the popular, not official religion in these countries. Some common influences of religion on geography include the following:

Architecture, especially places of worship (churches, synagogues, temples).
City and village layouts.
The imagery and language on street signs.
Religious art (or prohibition of religious imagery in art).
The local calendar (e.g., weekly closures on Sunday, seasonal festivals).
Cemeteries' location, configuration, and appearance.
Dress, especially the gender, class, and age differences expressed in it.
Diet (in the sense of food that can or cannot be eaten on certain days, or ever, and the rituals associated with consumption of food).
Pilgrimage sites and associated economic activities (e.g., sales of religious cards or other artifacts).
Festivals (e.g., a Christmas parade or harvest pageant).
Political restrictions on, or contested space among certain religious groups.
Direct or indirect influences on patterns of production and trade (e.g., pork cannot be produced or sold in Saudi Arabia, or beef in many parts of India).

This chapter discusses Orthodox Christianity, the most historically influential religion in Russia and several other FSU states, in the greatest detail. Somewhat briefer discussions are provided of Islam and other important religions of the region. The topics of diet and dress are considered separately at the end of the chapter.

Main Religions of Russia and Other FSU Countries

There are two main patterns in our region of study—one that is visible on maps, and another that is not. The first one is the predominance of Orthodox Christianity in much of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Georgia, with Sunni Islam being common in all of the Central Asian states and in parts of the Volga and northern Caucasus regions of Russia populated by the Turkic cultures. Lithuania is predominantly Roman Catholic; Estonia and Latvia are mostly Lutheran; Armenia has its own Christian Apostolic church (related to both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches); and Shia Islam predominates in Azerbaijan. In addition to these major groups, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Jewish communities are found in the biggest cities, and Buddhism is practiced in the Kalmykia and Buryatia Republics of Russia. Some new Protestant communities and alternative religious movements (e.g., Hare Krishna, Aum Shinrikyo, Scientology, etc.) can be found in most urban areas as well. Parts of Siberia and the Russian north have had small communities of Orthodox Old Believers (staroobryadtsy) since the 17th-century church schism over liturgical reforms under Patriarch Nikon.

The second pattern, which is not easily depicted on the map, is the secularism that is common to the entire region. “Secularism” is the absence of religion in people's lives. It is not the same as atheism; it simply means that formal religious observances play no role in people's daily routines. The presence of secularism is well documented in most developed parts of the world, especially Europe and Japan. Polls in the United States indicate that the fastest-growing group there in terms of religion is people without any formal religious affiliation. In the FSU, the impact of Communism during the Soviet period (1917–1991) and the general modernization of life resulted in high numbers of nonreligious people. Although the majority of people in the FSU call themselves religious, only a small minority actually practice a religion. For example, in Russia about 80% of people have been baptized in the Orthodox faith, but only 44% profess belief in a God, and merely 12% attend church on a monthly basis. Fewer still participate in the sacraments (e.g., communion or confession) that are required according to the church's teaching. Practicing Muslims make up less than 4% of the Russian Federation's population, although nominally about 16% are Muslims. Fewer than 1% each are Jewish or Buddhist. About 7% of Russians believe in supernatural forces other than a God, while a whopping 22% are agnostics who are not sure whether there is a God, and about 22% call themselves atheists.

By comparison, in the United States about 75% of people consider themselves Christians, and about 40% attend a religious ceremony at least once a month. Only 14% do not have any religious affiliation at all, although this is the fastest-growing group now, as noted above. The Russian pattern of religious adherence is thus closer to that in most European countries, which overall tend to have a higher proportion of nonreligious people than the United States. On the other hand, Japan and the United Kingdom are even more secularized than Russia. In recent estimates from Britain, there are fewer than 2 million practicing Anglicans now, out of about 60 million people.

A common history of religious persecution under the Soviet regime is shared by all faiths of the FSU. Particularly affected are the generations who were born and raised before 1991, which are overwhelmingly nonreligious. Among the younger people, there is actually a higher interest in practicing their new-found faith.

The Orthodox Church: Origins and Beliefs

The main religion of Russia and its allied Slavic states, as well as of Georgia and Moldova, is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Georgia and Russia have their own national Orthodox churches headed by patriarchs; Ukraine, Estonia, and Moldova have some communities under the Moscow Patriarchate, and others under their own national church leaders. Other former republics have mainly parishes under Moscow's leadership. Georgia has been Orthodox since the 4th century; Rus became Orthodox in 988 A.D., when Prince Vladimir of Kiev converted to Orthodox Christianity and married the Byzantine emperor's sister. Vladimir's choice was partly based on politics: By choosing Orthodoxy, he aligned himself with the powerful state of Byzantium. He also considered Islam, Judaism as practiced by the Khazars, and Roman Catholicism, but he reportedly chose the Orthodox religion because of the beauty of the Orthodox liturgy.

The Orthodox Church, like the Roman Catholic Church, has had an uninterrupted succession of bishops since the time of the Apostles. The Roman Catholic and the Orthodox faiths separated in 1054 A.D.; each claims to be the “true church,” not merely a part of the church, while seeing the other as in error on a number of theological points. Orthodoxy comprises a worldwide communion of national churches, all of which share theology and sacraments, but which have different sets of governing bishops. There is no Pope for all. The important decisions are made by councils, not by individual hierarchs. The Orthodox Church uses the same Bible and Creed as the Roman Church (with a few small exceptions). Numerous books are now available in English for those who wish to learn more about the practices and traditions of Orthodox Christianity.

The Orthodox Church stresses belief in the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit); asserts the true bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ after death; venerates sacred images (icons); prays to God, but also to the Virgin Mary and the saints; has very elaborate, long services; observes a complicated calendar of feasts and fasts; has a strong monastic tradition; and differs in many practices from either contemporary Catholicism or Protestantism. The main service of the day is called Divine Liturgy and is analogous to the Mass or Eucharist of Western Christians. People stand through this entire service, singing a capella responses, crossing and bowing, surrounded by icons, candles, and fragrant incense smoke. One can become a member by baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, with full triple immersion. Children are given communion after baptism, which usually happens at 40 days of age. The Eucharist is believed to be literally the body and blood of Christ, not a symbol. The Orthodox Church has an all-male clergy in three ranks: bishops, priests, and deacons. In contrast with the Catholics, married men become Orthodox priests. Bishops, however, must be celibate and are chosen from the ranks of the monastic clergy.

Orthodox Religious Landscapes

The most notable features of Orthodox religious landscapes are, of course, the churches themselves. The Orthodox call churches khramy (temples), to stress that Divine Eucharist is actually offered there as a form of bloodless sacrifice. Each church is laid out according to a standard plan with a theological meaning. People always enter from the west under a bell tower into the narthex (vestibule), and from there into the elongated nave. There are no pews, since people are expected to stand (and sometimes prostrate themselves on the floor, in a fashion somewhat similar to that of the Muslims). At the east end of the building is the raised sanctuary with an altar table hidden behind the curtain in the iconostasis (icon screen). The screen has three sets of doors in it, which are closed between services. Only priests and male altar servers are allowed inside the sanctuary. The altar itself is a square table covered with richly embroidered cloth; a candelabrum, the Gospel Book, the Tabernacle, the Cross, and various other holy objects are placed on it.

The biggest churches are called “cathedrals,” with bishops serving in those. Small chapels can be found at most cemeteries and in other locations. Chapels typically do not have altars and cannot be used for celebration of the Eucharist, but are suitable for saying prayers for the dead or for reading daily services. Every big village in Russia used to have a church; such a village was called a selo, as opposed to a village without a church (derevnya). Over 50,000 churches existed in the Russian Empire before the Revolution. Today there are over 15,000 parishes operating in Russia, and about half as many in Ukraine; much of Siberia and the Far East have relatively few churches, however.

In an old Russian city the biggest cathedral would typically be found inside the walls of the local kremlin. The main cathedral in Moscow is the one dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) inside the Kremlin, not St. Basil's. Built by the Italian architect Fioravanti in the late 1400s, it is a soaring white-stone edifice of incomparable beauty, both inside and outside. In a village, the church typically anchors one end of the main village street, with the cemetery located immediately behind the church's altar wall. In some cases, prominent church and state leaders were buried inside a church or cathedral itself, under its floor or in niches along the walls. For example, Archangel Michael's Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin has dozens of graves of the Rurikid dynasty, ending with the sons of Ivan the Terrible.

On the outside, the most striking features of Orthodox churches are their golden or blue onion-shaped domes. Usually there are 5 of these, but sometimes there are 7, 9, or even 13 of them. Each number, always odd, has some significance—5 domes symbolize Christ and the 4 evangelists, while 13 represent Christ with the 12 apostles. The bell towers are relatively late additions, borrowed from the Catholics. Prior to the 14th century, Russians used flat metal bila for ringing.

Monasteries can be very large and prominent, usually fortress-like, built many centuries ago to protect the monks from physical attacks by invaders. Inside are numerous churches, monastic cells, refectories, warehouses, and other buildings. Russia had about 1,000 monasteries a century ago; today a few hundred are open. The most famous monasteries (and one famous convent) are these:

Kiev Caves Lavra in Kiev, Ukraine (among the oldest; not in Russia any more, but still part of the Moscow-based Russian Church).
St. Sergius Trinity Lavra in Sergiev Posad, about 1 hour by bus or train northwest of Moscow.
Valaam, on islands at the northern end of Lake Ladoga.
Pskov Caves Monastery near the Estonian border (the only monastery on Russian territory that did not close during Soviet times, because it was under Estonian rule before World War II).
Optina Hermitage near Kozelsk, Kaluga Oblast, about 4 hours by car southwest of Moscow. Solovki Monastery on
the Solovetsky Islands in the distant White Sea (also a museum of the infamous nearby GULAG camp, where thousands of priests and bishops were executed in the early 1930s).
Diveevo Convent near Arzamas in Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast (the most famous and largest convent in Russia, associated with the great 19th-century mystic St. Seraphim of Sarov).

These are all major pilgrimage centers receiving hundreds of pilgrims on an average day. Of the seven, six are for men, and the convent (Diveevo) is for women. There are actually many more convents in Russia today than men's monasteries, but few of the convents are well known.

As in the West, the medieval monasteries were major centers of learning and arts. However, relatively less emphasis was placed in the East on manuscript copying and more on icon making. Also, no monasteries became university centers, except in a specialized sense as theological academies. Their biggest impact on the economy today is serving as focal points for religious pilgrimages. They also publish books, make icons and other items for worship, and house beautiful museums. Some are involved in charitable work in the surrounding communities (e.g., supporting orphanages).

Orthodox faith is also visible in the cemeteries. Russian cemeteries look and feel very different from most of those in Western Europe or North America. They occupy high points in the landscape, both to avoid flooding and for spiritual reasons. The biggest difference from typical Western cemetery landscapes is the presence of lots of shady trees and wild, uncut grass. From a distance, Russian cemeteries look like dense forests. Graves were formerly adorned with large eight-pointed Orthodox crosses, not with tombstones. In the Soviet period, however, the crosses were joined by granite or marble headstones with five-pointed stars for Communists and unbelievers. The grass would be allowed to grow tall and free. Graves would be fenced off to create a sense of privacy. (In a way, a grave site was the only truly private space that a person could count on.) Cremation is generally prohibited by the Orthodox Church, but in the Soviet period, with space being very limited near big cities, it became a common practice. The most famous cemetery of Russia is that of Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, where hundreds of Soviet-era dignitaries are buried (the ashes of many are interred inside the walls).

Many other signs of Orthodoxy are visible in the countryside: roadside shrines to saints; chapels over holy springs; frescoed icons on cliffs; sacred caves and groves; and other sites. In recent times there has also been a proliferation of churches and chapels as monuments or memorials: a cathedral in southeastern Moscow dedicated to the Millennium of Christianity, chapels commemorating heroes fallen in wars, and a chapel in Novosibirsk that marks the “midpoint” of Russia.

Many old churches have been restored. The most famous example of such restoration is Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. Described in detail by Sidorov (2000), this is a premier example of “national monumentalization”—a process in which, consciously or subconsciously, buildings are manipulated for the state's political aims. Other famous buildings recently restored in Moscow include Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral on Red Square and the Iveron Chapel nearby, both housing important religious artifacts. Many of the restored churches actually had to be rebuilt from scratch by using historical photographs and blueprints.

The Impact of Orthodoxy (and Other Religions) on Culture in the FSU

The Orthodox Church shaped Eastern Slavic culture for about 10 centuries (and even longer in the case of Georgia), and its impact is thus profound. Virtually all Russian classical music masterpieces, and a great deal of classical Russian literature until the end of the 19th century, were informed by and infused with Orthodox values. For example, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Bortnyansky, Balakirev, Rachmaninov, and Rimsky-Korsakov produced stunning choral, piano, and orchestral masterpieces as parts of actual church services (e.g., Rachmaninov's famous Vespers). Many Western readers have first encountered Orthodoxy through the writings of Feodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Leskov, or Nikolai Gogol.

Orthodoxy has had its strongest impact on the visual arts, because icons and other forms of religious art are ubiquitous in Orthodox worship. In addition, the Russian language itself bears many imprints of the Orthodox worldview. For example, “Thank you” in Russian is Spasibo, which literally means “May God save you!” Curiously, the early Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius preached the gospel in the Slavic lands in the vernacular—the Old Bulgarian language widely understood at the time—but the Russian church today uses an archaic Church Slavonic language (still based on that Old Bulgarian) in its worship. Although Church Slavonic is very precise and beautiful, it is not the language commonly spoken by the people.

The Orthodox Church exalts obedience and humility and frowns upon common vices, such as greed, lust, gluttony, malice, and pride. It is doctrinally one of the most conservative of the Christian churches, with beliefs changing little from one century to the next. Most of the contemporary social topics debated by Western Christians (female priesthood, homosexuals in the church, abortion, euthanasia, etc.) rarely appear in the Orthodox discourse. The opinion of the church is formed by the church councils, not by individual Popes or the believers themselves. Some historians believe that downplaying the earthly elements and elevating the eternal questions in church have placed Orthodox lands at a disadvantage in making the transition to a modern market economy, relative to its Protestant and even Catholic counterparts. For example, the work ethic of Western Europeans was greatly influenced by the Protestant concept of individual freedom, including the freedom to become rich and the need to take responsibility for one's own actions. Orthodox believers are more oriented toward the public good; the idea of owning a business strictly to enrich oneself is seen as a vice. Orthodox believers are also more used to a hierarchy in both the state and the church, and are thus less likely to take up individual political initiatives.

The fasting rules of the Orthodox Church are rigorous. A “fast day” means eating vegan food (not complete abstinence from food): No animal products can be consumed, although seafood is sometimes allowed. Vegetables, fruits, and grains may be eaten in moderation. About half of the Orthodox calendar falls on fast days—including the periods of Great Lent, Advent, and two additional fasts in summer, and almost every Wednesday and Friday. Imagine the impact of fasting on the patterns of agricultural production and retail in a country in which the vast majority of people were Orthodox. In Great Lent, people did not eat (and restaurants did not serve) meat or dairy at all, so the producers of those foods would have to be flexible in timing their production. The demand for meat and dairy would skyrocket after Pascha (Orthodox Easter), which usually happens in April. The church calendar of fasts and feasts dictated when and what crops would be planted and harvested, when marriages could be performed, when people would get a break from work, and so on. At the same time—unlike in some other religions, where certain foods are entirely forbidden—there are no “unclean” animals or plants on non-fast days. Slavic cultures are fond of pork, for example, whereas the diet for observant Muslims or Jews in the FSU would obviously exclude pork.

Dress has been likewise influenced by the Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish cultures throughout the FSU. It is hard to notice this now, after 70 years of Communist rule and 20 years of post-Soviet regimes, since Western dress is the common contemporary choice. However, the Orthodox religious rules require women to wear skirts or long dresses in church, and to cover their heads with scarves. Men are supposed to remove their hats when stepping into a church, and to be likewise modestly dressed (in long pants, long-sleeved shirts, etc.). In the Muslim community, women's traditional coverings in public were forbidden during the Soviet period, and so even today an Uzbek or a Tajik woman is much less likely to wear a hijab or burqa in public than a woman in much of the Middle East or North Africa. The faithful are still expected to observe correct dress code in mosques, however: Shoes must be removed and ritual ablutions performed. The Communist influence on dress in both Muslim and Orthodox cultures was thus one of modernization.

There are some other subtle Orthodox and Muslim influences on culture in the FSU. For example, the bright smiles so common among Americans and some Western Europeans are rare in Russia, because there is a cultural taboo against “showing oneself off.” Although a big, open smile is a friendly sign in the West, it is not as common in the East. The tone of voice likewise is supposed to be subdued in public. When people meet, they may hug each other and exchange light kisses on the cheeks three times, the same way worshipers commonly do in church; handshakes are much more common now, however. Both Orthodox Christianity and Islam call on people to be more communal and less individualistic. This results in a preference for large family gatherings, for public forums, and for special treatment of household guests. In fact, the hospitality of most Eurasian cultures is legendary. The cult of the collective, in the opinions of some conservative researchers, also influenced the political life of the region: A single autocratic ruler presiding over a community of citizens is seen as an extension of the divine rule of God on earth, and as the normative political structure for Russia and the Central Asian states. The community is seen as united in submission to this ruler, just as believers are supposed to be in submission to God. A differing viewpoint suggests that while Eurasians have been accustomed to autocratic rulers, each generation chooses to reproduce this accommodation without necessarily thinking about divinity at all, and that many people would much rather embrace more individualistic behavior if they were given a choice.

Islam in Russia and Other FSU States

The second most common faith worldwide, Islam, is also the second most common religion of the FSU. The majority of the Turkic people in the region have been Muslim since the 12th–13th centuries. Persian Tajiks adopted Islam from Arab missionaries from the Middle East in the 14th–15th centuries, or the Chechens in the Caucasus in the 18th century. During the 16th–17th centuries, the powerful Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan became Muslim. Khivy, Bukhara, and Samarkand arose as Islamic states in what is today Uzbekistan. Like Christianity, Islam is a “universalizing” religion; this means that anyone can potentially become a Muslim by conversion, and that the goal is to convert all humankind to the one true faith. Therefore, Islam has the potential for rapid expansion.

Today about 15% of Russia's population are nominally Muslim (although fewer than 4% of the people actually practice Islam), with about 47% of the population being Muslim in Kazakhstan, 75% in Kyrgyzstan, 88% in Uzbekistan, 89% in Turkmenistan, and 93% in Azerbaijan. Like the Christians in the region, most Muslims do not practice their religion daily, but have only a nominal affiliation. As an example, a young police officer from Kazakhstan explained that although he observes the Islamic teachings in principle, he likes to drink beer and does not like to spend his Fridays going to the mosque, so his religion is “not up to code.” He still considers himself a Muslim, but not by the traditional standards. Nevertheless, the influence of Islam on culture in Central Asia and in the Muslim parts of Russia has undoubtedly grown in the past 20 years.

The heaviest concentrations of Muslims in Russia are observed in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and the republics of the northern Caucasus. According to the Law on Religions passed by the Duma, Islam is recognized along with Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, and Buddhist religions as a traditional faith of the Russian Federation, and thus does not require special permits or scrutiny from the authorities (unlike various “nontraditional faiths,” such as Mormonism, Baha'i, or Pentecostal Christianity). Sizable Muslim minorities also live in Ukraine (especially Tatars in the Crimea) and Georgia (in the separatist Abkhaz Republic). It is significant that the resurgence of interest in Islam is highest not among poor people in villages, but among the more educated, younger urban people. Some Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, have made major investments in the building of mosques and the printing of Qurans and other religious literature for the Central Asian states. In Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, Turkey is heavily involved in promoting its own agenda, which may include elements of Islam. Iran has an even greater influence there, because millions of Azerbaijanis who live within its limits; it also shares the Shia version of Islam with Azerbaijan, unlike Turkey, which is both more secular and Sunni.

Most cities in Central Asia, the northern Caucasus, and the Volga region of Russia now have at least one mosque. Some recently built ones rival the biggest Russian cathedrals in size, and are quite beautiful, durable, and modern structures. Islamic religious schools and culture centers are likewise now common. Compared with much of the Middle East, however, the post-Soviet Muslim states remain relatively secular. There are no openly Islamic governments in any, and in fact radical Islam is viewed with tremendous suspicion by the leaders of all. Of the six Muslim states in the FSU, only Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have a recent history of radical Islamist movements' causing trouble. In Russia, the Chechnya, Ingushetiya, and Kabardino-Balkariya Republics have known Wahhabi cells.

The most common cultural imprint of Islam on the landscape is undoubtedly the presence of mosques surrounded by slender minaret towers. The prohibition against imagery in Islam may be noticeable in street advertisements, which will use heavy ornamentation, but less revealing or conspicuous imagery. Also common are cemeteries with tombs or mausoleums designed according to Muslim principles.

Other Faiths in the FSU

Roman Catholicism is traditional in Lithuania as well as in western Ukraine and Belarus, where one can visit splendidly decorated Gothic churches. The early Lithuanian kings vacillated between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, choosing the former by the late 14th century, primarily because of the political situation at the time. For a few centuries there was a strong Polish–Lithuanian kingdom that rivaled Russia and Germany in strength. Since the Vatican II council, Catholic prayers have been said in the vernacular (Lithuanian), with a few parishes remaining faithful to the traditional Latin Mass. Compared to U.S. or French Catholics, Lithuanians are more traditional in worship, dress, and political opinions. There are few who question the Pope's authority in such matters as contraception, women's roles in the church, or contemporary worship styles. In fact, some of the splinter Old Catholic and pre-Vatican II Catholics in the United States have Lithuanian backgrounds. In this sense, Lithuania resembles neighboring Poland, one of the two most traditional Catholic countries in Europe (along with Ireland). Although the state in Lithuania is secular, the religion is recognized as important, and there is a lot of popular respect and support for the church (about 50% of the people consider themselves Christian, which is a higher proportion than in most FSU countries).

Occupying a position somewhere between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the matters of doctrine, the Armenian Apostolic Church is the traditional religion of the Armenians. It is believed to have been established by two apostles, Thaddeus and Bartholomew. The Armenians separated from the Orthodox Church after one of the early church councils that discussed the presence of two natures in Christ (the Armenians, along with the Ethiopian and Coptic churches of Egypt, subscribe to the view that there is only one divine nature in Christ—a position known as “monophysitism”). Armenians who live worldwide have their spiritual leader in Lebanon, while the post-Soviet Armenians have theirs in Armenia proper. Interestingly, the externals of the Armenian Church have a lot in common with those of the Catholic Church as the latter looked at the time the two churches separated (about 600 A.D.). For example, Armenian bishops wear mitres very similar to those of Catholic, but not Orthodox, bishops. The Armenian Christians do not have a full icon screen in the churches, but rather a curtain. Their liturgical music is a distinct Armenian chant.

Lutheranism became widespread in Estonia and Latvia as the Germans and the Swedes extended their reach over the Baltic region in the 16th–17th centuries. Some sizable pockets of Lutheranism also exist along the Volga River and in parts of Central Asia, where Germans began to settle in the 18th century. However, many of those settlers were actually members of religious minorities who were persecuted by the mainstream Lutherans in Germany. Therefore, German communities in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan today may have distinct Pentecostal, Baptist, or other non-Lutheran Protestant affiliations.

Anglicans have had a presence in Russia for several centuries, as England always needed someone to meet the religious needs of its political and trade representatives in Russia. A beautiful Anglican church located in downtown Moscow looks indistinguishable from some in England itself, but most of its parishioners are visiting British citizens.

All other major Protestant churches are represented in Russia, Ukraine, and some other countries of the FSU. There are also some “homegrown” groups, such as the Russian Evangelical Baptists and the Moscow Church of Christ, but also more recent foreign imports, such as Seventh-Day Adventists, various Evangelical and Pentecostal groups, the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Buddhists traditionally lived in Buryatia and Kalmykia. Both these republics within Russia are areas of Mongolian settlement as a result of the Tatar–Mongol conquest and later migrations from Central Asia. The specific version of Buddhism primarily practiced in Russia is Lamaism. Buddhism was first officially recognized as a traditional religion in Russia by a decree of Empress Elizabeth in 1741. The largest Buddhist complex in Russia, Ivolginsky daitsan, is located near Ulan-Ude in Buryatia.

The traditional religion of Siberian indigenous peoples is “animism,” also known as “shamanism.” Siberian shamanism is broadly similar to the religion of Native Americans, with many of the same elements of spirit worship through dance, trance, and sacrifice. The same powerful animals and plants are worshiped on both sides of the Pacific (wolf, eagle, bear, whale, walrus, pine, oak). A handful of people in the distant corners of Chukotka Peninsula and in Yakutia may still be found who actually practice it. Generally, the fate of this religion's adherents was conversion to Christianity first, and then to Soviet atheism later. Shamanistic beliefs also survive in the southern mountains of Siberia, especially in the Altay and the Sayans, where they are combined with Buddhist and Christian elements—as, for example, in Burkhanism, practiced by the Altay people. Recently there has been a resurgence in shamanism among the young urban people in Siberia, frequently mixed with nationalism.

Judaism

In the western urban centers of the present-day FSU, especially in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and western Russia, Judaism played a traditionally important role from the Middle Ages onward. Jewish settlements existed primarily in the western part of the Russian Empire, because Judaism diffused into the region primarily through Western and Central Europe, where it existed uneasily amidst the predominantly Christian population. (An earlier kingdom of the nonethnically Jewish Khazars, who practiced Judaism in the 7th–8th centuries, existed in and around the Crimea.) The Pale of Settlement law of the tsarist period allowed permanent Jewish settlements only in the western part of the country, pretty much confining them to Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland. The law was first created by Catherine the Great in 1791, a German, who was afraid of the rising influence of the educated Jewish middle class. Jews could abandon their religion and become Christians, in which case all the benefits of Russian citizenship would be conferred on them, and they would then be able to leave the Pale. Some took full advantage of the opportunity, but many did not. Historically, there were large Jewish communities in the big cities of Central Asia and the Caucasus as well, and some small pockets of the Jewish faithful remain there even today.

In the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of mostly urban poor Jews left the increasingly anti-Semitic Russian Empire to avoid pogroms. Some went to Western Europe, but the majority ended up in North America, particularly New York City. The remaining communities (shtetls) were decimated by the civil war of 1917–1922, collectivization, and finally the Holocaust of World War II. It is estimated that over 1 million of the 6 million or so of the Holocaust's victims came from the Soviet Union, mainly from Belarus, Lithuania, and western Ukraine.

The Soviet Union abolished all inequalities based on religion in theory, but not in reality. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East was created by Stalin with an idea of relocating the Jews from Central Russia to a new “homeland” along the Amur River. Today its population is only 1.2% Jewish, but it does house some important Jewish cultural elements (including a theater, a university, and a museum) in Birobidzhan. In the early Soviet period, many Soviet leaders were actually of Jewish ethnicity (e.g., Trotsky, Zinovyev, and Kamenev). However, after the purges of 1937–1940 the party leadership was decidedly not Jewish any more, and there was much personal antagonism between the Russians and the Jews at the local level as well. Because few of the ethnic Jews of the Soviet period were religious, the anti-Jewish prejudice was really more against the distinct ethnicity than against Judaism as a religion.

In the 1970s and 1980s, on the other hand, many people from Jewish backgrounds had a chance to emigrate to Israel and other countries because they were sponsored by the Jewish communities there, whereas it was not possible for ethnic Russians to leave the country. Fewer than 1 million Jews remain in today's FSU, and most do not practice their religion. Over 1 million emigrated to Israel, and a few hundred thousand to Germany and the United States (most of the latter in the 10-year period between 1988 and 1998). Nevertheless, large synagogues exist in Moscow, Nizhniy Novgorod, Minsk, Kiev, Odessa, Kishinev, Tashkent, and other major cities. Russian Judaism is united in the All-Russia Jewish Council, with a chief rabbi in Moscow. Unlike in the United States, the majority of synagogues in Russia are centers of Orthodox, not Reform Judaism.

Anti-Semitism, though illegal, is still common in Russia today. In fact, several prominent members of the Duma and regional governors have made openly anti-Semitic remarks on numerous occasions. Even more ominous is the rise in openly xenophobic hate groups, including real “skinheads,” in the new Russia. At the same time, the vast majority of people in the region remain tolerant, and more inclusive environments are being created at workplaces and in schools.

Nonreligious People and the Politics of Religion in Russia Today

In recent Russian history, there has been some controversy over the role religion should play in the politics of the state. On the one hand, the Russian state today is explicitly secular, with full separation between church and state since 1917. On the other hand, some religions are defined as “traditional” for the peoples of Russia, and others are not. As noted above, the traditional religions include Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Although Orthodoxy is not a state religion, Russia's recent leadership has been frequently seen at various church functions and ceremonies, and many members of the Putin–Medvedev government claim to practice their religion regularly. There is also no doubt that a lot of public funding, however defined, has gone into restoring churches and monasteries around Russia. In other FSU republics, the construction of mosques and other structures may likewise be partially funded by central or local governments. This is justified in part by the argument that the atheistic state destroyed many religious landmarks over the course of Soviet history and is now expected to make reparations. At the same time, many people question the exact nature and extent of the state's meddling in religious affairs.

In a society as corrupt as Russia's today, with most of the leaders representing only one religion, serious religious bias may result. In fact, when the Law on Religions was initially passed during Yeltsin's presidency in the mid-1990s, many Western observers were led to believe that very shortly thereafter there would be a widespread crackdown against all forms of religions not explicitly sanctioned by the state. This has not happened. Some particularly notorious sects, including the suicidal Japanese cult of Aum Shinrikyo, were in fact shut down, and some Western-sponsored groups indeed experienced increased difficulties with their official registration. However, no major crackdown on religious freedoms has occurred, as far as any observers can tell. In fact, when visiting any big city in Russia today, you are likely to be greeted by religious tract pushers of one sort or another at the entrance to any subway station.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church claim that it receives very little support (financial or otherwise) from government officials. Early in the Yeltsin period, the church received the privilege of importing some Western goods duty-free, as a way to sponsor its rebuilding activities at home. Although this was not a bad idea in itself, most of the money was made through importation of cigarettes, which arguably was not the healthiest arrangement. Also, other nonprofit groups complained that the church received an unfair privilege, shared by only some sports' and veterans' groups.

There has been much discussion of how much religious instruction can or should be allowed in Russian public schools. Religious ideas could be conceivably taught in Russia in the context of a “religious culture” class, whereby it is recognized as a cultural tradition and permitted by the constitution. There is much public support for including some religious ideas, whether Christian, Muslim, or Jewish, in a course focusing on ethics. However, questions arise as to what the exact content of the class will be, who will be qualified to teach it (clergy or regular teachers), and what to do about students who may wish not to be included in such a course. There is an ongoing debate on what would be best for the nation as a whole at the moment, but generally the idea of religious instruction at schools meets with considerable public opposition.

Indeed, the majority of the population in Russia today leads a distinctly nonreligious lifestyle. Although the number of self-professed nonbelievers (22%) is low, it is higher than the number of those actively practicing Orthodoxy (8–12%). Many of the least religious people grew up in the Soviet period. Atheists in Russia have gained publicity in recent years, as when the Nobel Prize laureate academician V. L. Ginzburg went public with his denunciation of the religious worldview in general as counterproductive medieval gibberish.

Also, many people in Russia today embrace dual religious identities—practicing astrology and Christianity together, for example. About 25% embrace a vague syncretic worldview that recognizes the existence of spirits, karma, and reincarnation, and affirms divination, talismans, tarot, and yoga as legitimate practices, while simultaneously professing adherence to the Russian Orthodox Church (which vehemently condemns all of these things). Even among “real” believers, the adherence can be pretty minimal. Some people show up in midservice just to light a candle, without staying for more than 5 minutes out of the 2-hour long liturgy.

Explicitly religious conflicts in Russia, or anywhere else in the FSU, are thankfully rare. Members of the clergy are sometimes targeted as victims of hate crimes (e.g., the murder of a prominent missionary priest in Moscow in the fall of 2009 received much attention, because the alleged reason for the killing was the priest's work with Muslim converts to Christianity). Although the continuing conflict in Chechnya is frequently cast in the light of Christian–Islamic antagonism, it is clearly a political struggle primarily focused on control over the land and minds of Chechnya's inhabitants. The major Chechen warlords did receive support from many international Islamic sources (some as notorious as Al–Qaeda), but their main goal, at least in the early stages, was political independence rather than creation of an Islamic state of Ichkeriya per se. However, once the conflict began, it was very hard to avoid references to the identifying religion on both sides, as frequently happens in many wars around the world.

My grandmother comes from the city of Kasimov in Ryazan Oblast, Central Russia, where for centuries Muslim Tatars lived alongside Orthodox Russians in peaceful coexistence. There were churches and mosques in town, and while Christians prayed on Sundays and Muslims on Fridays, members of both groups met each other at the city market on Saturdays. This model worked for centuries, and in fact it is much more normative in the region than the occasional conflicts that plague newly established frontiers, despite the international news coverage of only the latter.

In addition to Muslim–Orthodox and Orthodox–Protestant relations, the two lines of religious antagonism typical of the FSU are residual anti-Semitism (see “Judaism,” above) and Orthodox–Catholic relations. The relations between the two largest Christian bodies, Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, have never been particularly warm since the Great Schism of 1054 A.D.—and especially not since the Catholic sack of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, in the Fourth Crusade in 1204 A.D. Attempts at unity were made repeatedly in the Middle Ages, primarily upon the initiative of the Popes, but all of these were rebuffed by Orthodox leaders on the grounds that the Popes wanted unity primarily for political rather than theological reasons. Besides some real theological disagreements—for instance, belief in the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father and the Son in the West (only the Father in the East), the new Catholic dogmas of papal infallibility and the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and the questions of indulgences and purgatory (none of which the Eastern Churches recognize)—there were some very real geopolitical motives at play as well.

Some Orthodox Christians came into full union with Rome in 1596 A.D. in the Act of Union at Brest-Litovsk. Known now as the Uniates, or Byzantine Catholics, these Christians—primarily living in western Ukraine, Slovakia, and parts of Moldova and Belarus—were accepted into full communion with Rome, but were allowed to keep their Orthodox liturgy, icons, and married priesthood. However, they were denounced by the Orthodox bishops in Russia and Greece as schismatics and were marginalized in the Russian Empire. Since the Uniates lived between primarily Catholic Poland and Austro-Hungary and primarily Orthodox Russia, their fate was either good or bad, depending on who was in charge of their land at a particular moment in time. Both the Uniates and the Orthodox Church were persecuted during the Soviet period, but after World War II, when many Eastern European lands were absorbed into the Soviet Union, the Soviets actually encouraged the Orthodox communities there to seize some of the Uniate churches. The fall of Communism provided a hope that all sides would be finally able to practice their religions alongside each other in the newly independent nations. This did not happen, because both the Russian and Roman churches would openly support their respective sides, trying to win the local authorities to their cause. Moreover, several Orthodox churches in western Ukraine were seized by the Uniates in the 1990s, with the full complicity of the local authorities. In Lvov, for example, many Orthodox parishes lost their buildings without any compensation. At the same time, the Uniates are suspect in Russia proper. The Uniate issue remains one of the main reasons why the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Moscow have yet to meet in person.

At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church has been trying to extend its reach across Russia. It is establishing new parishes and dioceses, while arguing that for decades it was deprived of the opportunity to serve existing Catholics, especially in Siberia and the Far East. Although it is not barred from active religious practice by law in Russia and is even recognized as a “traditional” faith, the Catholic Church is viewed with the utmost suspicion by the Orthodox Church, because it is perceived as a powerful political organization influenced by secularized Western ideas of what the church should be like. Of course, the Catholic Church is also perceived as a strong competitor for the souls, the minds, and the purses of the faithful. Orthodox leaders are concerned about potential defections of their own members to the Western faith.

In practice, struggling Orthodox or Catholic parishes in, for example, remote Siberia have much in common: Both are poor and short of priests, with the faithful scattered over a huge, inhospitable terrain. In some cities (e.g., Vladivostok), local Orthodox and Catholic parishes actually join forces for noble humanitarian causes, such as providing food and shelter to the homeless or helping orphaned children. The mistrust, however, runs very deep and is farther reinforced by the anti-Western rhetoric of many regional and federal politicians in Russia.

Diet

As explained above, religion clearly influences many choices in people's lives, including things they eat and wear. With respect to both, however, climate plays an even greater role. Many plants and animals cannot survive cold winters, thus limiting food choices. At the same time, the cold weather has made warm winter clothing, primarily made of wool and furs, a necessity for the Russians and other inhabitants of the region. This section focuses primarily on the Russian diet; Turkic/Central Asian variants are briefly mentioned at the end.

The Russian cuisine is of legendary quality. In fact, in a recent international poll it was rated among the top three tastiest worldwide, along with Italian and Japanese. Its main ingredients are wheat, beef, and dairy, so it is not greatly different from the mainstream European or American diets; all are direct descendants of the diet of the Middle East/Asia Minor, the region where both wheat and cattle were domesticated. The staple grains are rye, barley, and oats in the north, and wheat, buckwheat, and corn in the south. Soy is becoming more commonly used too, but is not a component of any traditional meal.

The Russian diet is generally heavy on carbohydrates and fats, both important for providing energy during the cold winter months. For example, the classic Russian open-faced sandwich (buterbrod) consists of white bread, a thin layer of pure unsalted butter, and a slice of either cheese or sausage on top. Many hearty soups are beefbased, such as borscht (which also includes cabbage and beets) and schi (which includes cabbage only). Wild game (e.g., deer, boar, bear, rabbit, goose, duck, snipes, partridge, grouse, and quail) would traditionally complement the meats obtained from cows, pigs, and sheep. The choice of vegetables and fruit is very limited, because few of these can be grown in Russia. The staple vegetables are cabbage, beets, green peas, carrots, squash, and turnips. Turnips were the main starchy food before the potato was introduced during the reign of Peter the Great in the early 18th century. Tomatoes and cucumbers are very common in salads. The essential two herbs are parsley and dill.

The main fruits are wild berries (raspberries, strawberries, lingonberries, blueberries, cranberries), as well as apples, pears, plums, and (in the south) apricots, peaches, and cherries. Berries from the forest are processed into sweet varenye (boiled fruit in very heavy syrup, but no pectin), which is added to tea. Russians are very fond of fish and other seafood. Over 50 kinds of fish (both freshwater and saltwater) were commonly eaten before the Revolution, as evidenced by the stories of Shmelev, Leskov, Turgenev, and others. Some of this bounty, especially eel and sturgeon, is now threatened with extinction. Another important food item is mushrooms, which are collected wild in the forest. A few dozen species are eaten fried, boiled, or pickled.

The traditional drinks include kvass (a mildly alcoholic fermented rye malt beverage), vodka (the best is made from rye and wheat filtered through birch charcoal), and hot black tea. Juice was not commonly available in winter, so the Russians invented the compote (a drink consisting of boiled dried fruit) and added fruit to tea as described above. Some more exotic drinks from the old times include sbiten, made from honey and spices, and kisel, made from cranberries. Although Russians have now developed quite a taste for beer, wine, coffee, and soda, consumption of those beverages was very limited even 20 years ago.

The Russian culture gives high importance to food. Traditionally, three meals a day are eaten, somewhat later than is customary in North America or northern Europe (e.g., breakfast at 8:00 A.M., dinner at 1:00 P.M., and supper at 7:00–8:00 P.M.). The midday meal is the biggest, consisting of a salad, soup, a main course with meat, and compote or varenye. People would formerly spend about an hour at the midday dinner, with leisurely conversations over food. This is no longer as common now, because Westernstyle office schedules reduce available time. Until recently, very little processed food was used in cooking; this required more time for food preparation at home, but resulted in a much healthier diet and more satisfactory taste. Frozen TV dinners are still viewed with suspicion by many Russians as “fake food,” but are now commonly available in stores.

Most food in the Russian diet is grown domestically. In the past few years, an increasing proportion of staples have had to be imported (e.g., dill from Europe or pickles from India), reflecting the poor state of domestic agriculture. Some tropical items, most notably black tea, are imported from India or Sri Lanka. Russia has limited tea plantations near Sochi along the Black Sea coast. Sugar comes either from domestic sugar beets or from tropical sugar cane. Of course, all tropical fruits must be imported. Russian food is well balanced with respect to spices; it is “just enough” salty, sweet, or spicy for most people. However, the southern regions of the FSU, especially Georgia, have notoriously spicy food that rivals some South Asian foods in hotness.

The Ukrainian diet is generally very similar to the Russian, with some specialties shared by both cultures (e.g., borscht and the ravioli-like pelmeni). One famous Ukrainian food is salo, which is basically salted pig fat consumed raw as a snack, sometimes accompanied by shots of horylka (Ukrainian vodka). The Ukrainian diet has more dairy and fresh produce items than the Russian.

Central Asia and the Caucasus have their own unique diets, which emphasize lamb, goat, local spices, olive oil, flatbread (lavash), vegetables, and fruit. In many respects, the Georgian and Armenian cuisines are simply versions of the famous “Mediterranean diet.” Red wine is a Georgian specialty, made from unique grape varieties grown only in this country—especially the legendary saperavi grapes, with a semisweet, exotic taste, and the darkest color of any grape. Also common are fermented milk beverages and foods (e.g., kefir and cheeses). In the Muslim regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus, pork, of course, cannot be eaten by the observant Muslims or Jews, so lamb (mutton) and goat are the most common meats. Beef may be eaten too, but is usually too expensive to produce on the dry rangelands. Another notable type of Central Asian meat is horsemeat, generally eaten either boiled or dried among the Kazakh and Mongolian cultures. Fermented mares' milk, called kumys, is both traditional and popular. In Turkmenistan, camels' milk is consumed too. Also, members of Central Asian cultures drink a lot of hot green tea with milk and butter, to stave off thirst. You might expect iced tea to work better, but for centuries Central Asians have used the old recipe, and it always works.

Dress

Both religion and climate have historically shaped what people wear. In Russia, the main dress today is essentially European, with little noticeable difference between Moscow and Paris. In the provinces, however, people may still wear workers' clothing left over from Soviet times (e.g., oversized cotton-stuffed jackets in winter, striped sailors' shirts in summer, and huge rubber or felt boots—a necessity, given the absence of pavement). In winter, men wear fur hats with ear flaps, called ushanka. These hats are made of rabbit, dog, fox, or wolf hides, and (for much higher prices) of beaver, mink, or even sable. Women would traditionally cover their heads with woolen or silk scarves or shawls; today they wear anything that looks nice and is in fashion. Many prefer to let their hair show and wear no head covering at all, despite the cold.

Warm overcoats are a necessity in winter. The traditional ones (tulup) were made of sheepskins and were very warm, but heavy. The nobility could afford beaver, mink, weasel, or even sable fur coats. Even today, you are much more likely to see a Russian than a Western European dressed in real fur, both as a fashion statement and also as a necessity, given the climate.

The pants worn in Russia are usually long. Shorts are not commonly worn even in the warmest months, and frankly it never gets warm enough in much of the country to require them. Women would traditionally wear dresses and skirts, but since Soviet times they increasingly wear much the same clothing as men—including long pants or trousers, as dictated by the needs of the working class or by an overt attempt to create gender neutrality. Skirts are still required in Orthodox and many other churches. In the old Russia, each region would have its own dress embroidery style. These survive today primarily only in ethnographic museums, although you may have luck finding some people still wearing traditionally embroidered clothing in remote villages in Ukraine or Belarus.

In the Muslim cultures of the FSU, the traditional costume would be likewise long, with ample head and other coverings for women. The decades of Soviet rule changed this rather radically, with very few people wearing any ethnic clothing outside of some cultural events. However, there is a growing trend toward wearing national dress for fun and for religious observances among the new wealthy elites in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and some other republics, as well as among ardent new followers of Islam. Men in the Caucasus wear long coats with belts (to which daggers are strapped), and long, tailored pants underneath. In Central Asia, given its warmer climate, long yellow or white robes are more common. The head cover is either a tall sheepskin hat of a distinctive type (papakha) in the Caucasus, or a round or square thin black skullcap (tyubeteika) in Central Asia, especially in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Traditional Jewish dress has long ago disappeared. What we now think of as “Jewish” attire for Orthodox Jewish men is in fact a costume based on the dress of 18th-century Polish urban dwellers (black hats, jackets, etc.). Few Russian Jews wear religious clothing even to the synagogues.

Review Questions

Name the main religions of the FSU. Where are they found?
Describe the elements of an Orthodox cultural landscape.
Which ethnic groups in Russia are “polyconfessional” (i.e., may belong to more than one religion), and which religious groups are “polyethnic” (i.e., embrace members of more than one ethnicity)?
Speculate on your future as a restaurant owner in any republic of the FSU. Make sure to investigate the republic's religious makeup before proposing menus tailored to the predominant population.
How is your diet similar to or different from the typical Russian diet described in this chapter?
Explain why horse meat is generally an uncommon food choice in the United States. How would you feel about someone offering you a piece of dried horse over dinner in a Central Asian country? What would you do?
What is the stereotypical dress of the Soviet period, according to Hollywood? Do you think that this is an accurate representation? If it is, how do you think dress has changed in Russia since the fall of Communism?

Exercises

Research the history of a particular monastery (you can use one on the list in the “Orthodox Religious Landscapes” section). Try to determine the geographic factors that led to its establishment at its site.
Schedule a visit to an Orthodox church in the city where you live. Look in the Yellow Pages under “Orthodox–Eastern” churches to find one. You can also use an online locator (www.orthodoxyinamerica.org).
Do additional research and a classroom presentation on some other religion of the FSU: Sunni or Shia Islam, the Armenian Apostolic Church, Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, or Buddhism. What impact has this religion had on the cultural landscape of the region(s) where it is found?