Orthodox The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church[note 1] and also the Eastern Orthodox Church, asserts that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years ago. The Church is composed of several self-governing ecclesial bodies, each geographically and Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity comprises three major branches: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (the two split from one another in 1054 A.D.), and Protestantism (which came into existence during the Protestant Reformation of the 16 (Russian Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three (or four including Rusyn) living members of the East Slavic languages. Written examples of Old East Slavonic are: Православие Pravoslavije) is Russia's traditional and largest religion, deemed part of Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a state in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic,'s "historical heritage" in a law passed in 1997.^[1] Russian Orthodoxy The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ� is the dominant religion in Russia.^[2] 95% of the registered Orthodox parishes belong to the Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ� while there are a number of smaller Orthodox Churches.^[3] However, the vast majority of Orthodox believers do not attend church on a regular basis.^[4] Nonetheless, the church is widely respected by both believers and nonbelievers, who see it as a symbol of Russian heritage and culture.^[4] Smaller Christian denominations such as Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called, Armenian Gregorian The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church. The Armenian Apostolic Church traces its origins to the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1 and various Protestants Protestantism is one of the four major divisions within Christianity together with the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The term is most closely tied to those groups that separated from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation exist.

The ancestors of many of today’s Russians adopted Orthodox Christianity in the 10th century.^[4] Approximately 100 million citizens consider themselves Russian Orthodox Christians, amounting to 70% of population, although the Church claims a membership of 80 million^[5][6];also according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM, [established in 1987; till 1992 – All-Union Public Opinion Research Center] is the oldest polling institution in the post-Soviet space and is one of the leading sociological and market research companies in Russia, 63% of respondents considered themselves Russian Orthodox, 6% of respondents considered themselves Muslim A Muslim or Moslem is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements.[ and less than 1% considered themselves either Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish.^[7] Another 12% said they believe in God, but did not practice any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers.^[7]. It is estimated that Russia is home to 23 million people of Muslim backgrounds, including 1.5 million in Moscow alone.^[8][9] The Orthodox Church estimated in 2000 that 20 million Russians were Muslim, while the official census counter around 15 million^[10] Russia also has an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslim migrants from the ex-Soviet states.^[11] Most Muslims live in the Volga-Ural region Idel-Ural is a historical region in Eastern Europe, in what is today Russia. The name literally means Volga-Urals in the Tatar language. The frequently used Russian variant is Volgo-Uralye (Russian: Волго-Уралье), as well as in the North Caucasus The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia, Moscow, St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg (Russian: Са́нкт-Петербу́рг , tr. Sankt-Peterburg, IPA [ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk]) is a city and a federal subject (a federal city) of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd (Russian: Петроград, IPA [pʲɪtrɐˈgrat], 191 and western Siberia.^[12] Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an is traditional for three regions of the Russian Federation: Buryatia, Tuva The Tyva Republic , or Tuva (Russian: Тува́, Tuva), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic) and Kalmykia The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject (a republic) of the Russian Federation. The direct romanization of the republic's Russian name is Respublika Kalmykiya, and that of the Kalmyk name is Khal'mg Tangghch. It is the only state in Europe where the dominant religion is Buddhism. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca,.^[13] Some residents of the Siberian and Far Eastern regions, Yakutia The Sakha Republic (Russian: Респу́блика Саха́ (Яку́тия), Respublika Sakha (Yakutiya); Sakha: Саха Республиката, Sakha Respublikata) is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). The population of Yakutia mainly consist of the ethnic Yakuts, Chukotka Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , or Chukotka (Чуко́тка), is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug) located in the Far Eastern Federal District, etc., practice pantheistic and pagan rites, along with the major religions. Induction into religion takes place primarily along ethnic lines. Slavs The Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in central and eastern Europe. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of the Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Many settled later in Siberia and Central Asia or emigrated to other parts of the world. Over half of Europe's are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian.^[14] Turkic speakers are predominantly Muslim, although several Turkic groups in Russia are not.^[14]

Adherents

Detailed analysis of popularity of religions in Russia is complicated by the fact that different approaches to quantifying adherents of different religious groups often give contradictory results.

• The most natural approach is based on self-identification data. The majority of Russian citizens, and as many as 90% of ethnic Russians, self-identify as Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ�. This makes Russian Orthodox Church by far the most widespread religion, with as many as 70-75 million adult adherents.

Based on self-identification data, the population of Russia includes 70.2% of Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ� Christians, 4-6% are Muslims A Muslim or Moslem is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements.[, a little more than 1% of Protestants Protestantism is one of the four major divisions within Christianity together with the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The term is most closely tied to those groups that separated from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation (including 0.3% of Lutherans Lutheranism is a theological movement to reform Christianity with the teaching of justification by grace through faith alone. Lutheranism identifies with the theology confessed in the Augsburg Confession and the other writings compiled in the Book of Concord. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology), a little less than 1% of Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called and some 0.1% of Old Believers In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers became separated after 1666–1667 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Old Believers continue liturgical practices which the Russian Orthodox Church maintained before the implementation of these reforms. About 0.1% of the population are adherents of Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an. A Russian census of 2002 found 230 thousand (0.16%) ethnic Jews The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation. Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos in the country, but only 8% of them, which is 0.01% of the total population) self-identify as followers of Judaism Judaism is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people. Judaism, originating in the Hebrew Bible and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed. Small religions in Russia comprise 0.19%. 4% of the population identified themselves as non-believers.

• The so-called "ethnic approach" is primarily useful when applied towards ethnic religious communities that are small and/or compact enough to be "left out" of normal public opinion polls. It based on an assumption that 100% of population of every ethnic minority are adherents of their group's traditional religion. A good example of such a religious community is Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an ancient Christian church currently centered in Chicago, Illinois, United States, but with most members in Mesopotamia. One of the modern churches that claim continuity with the historical Patriarchate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon – the Church of, represented in Russia by ethnic Assyrians The Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people are an ethnic group whose origins lie in the Fertile Crescent. Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people have been minorities under other ethnic groups' rule since the early Middle Ages. They have traditionally lived in northern Iraq, Syria, northwest Iran, and. With the body of followers of less than 15,000, it wouldn't show up or would fall within the margin of error on any reasonable religious self-identification poll, and its size can only be reasonably inferred from census data using the ethnic approach.

The ethnic approach is sometimes misused to artificially "inflate" prevalence of certain religions. For example, according to the Russian census of 2002, at least 14 million people in Russia belong to traditional Islamic ethnic groups (Tatars Sunni Islam with Orthodox Christian and Irreligious minorities, Bashkirs The Bashkirs are Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan, Russia. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, as well as in Perm Krai and Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Samara, and Saratov Oblasts of Russia, etc.) Due to the worker migration from former Soviet republics, this number may have grown to 20 million by 2007. Consequently, it is often claimed that Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is a strictly monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (which is called the Sunnah in has 14 million (or even 20-25 million) adherents in Russia. ^[15] On the other hand, self-identification analysis results in a more conservative estimate of 6-7 million adult Muslims.

• One can get radically different results by estimating the number of observant followers of every religion, the reason being that members of many ethnic groups often choose to self-identify as adherents to a certain religion for cultural reasons, although they would not fit any traditional religiousness criteria (church attendance, familiarity with basic dogmas of their faith). For example, even though 80% of ethnic Russians self-identify as Russian Orthodox, less than 10% of them attend church services more than once a month and only 2-4% are considered to be integrated into church life (воцерковленные)^[16].

Depending on the exact criteria, it is believed that there are 3-15 million practicing Orthodox Christians and 1.5-4 million practicing Muslims in Russia.^[17] It is difficult to estimate observance of self-identified followers of other religions. The only faiths which are likely not to suffer from this phenomenon as strongly are those without ethnic basis in the country: most branches of Protestantism, Roman Catholicism generally, New religious movements A new religious movement is a faith-based community, or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of recent origin. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, in which case they will be distinct from pre-existing denominations. Scholars studying the sociology of religion have almost unanimously, Krishnaism Krishnaism is used to describe a number of Vaishna religious traditions that are among the Hindu denominations centered on devotion to Radha Krishna or other forms of Krishna, or Vishnu in a sentiment of Krishna. It is based on the Bhagavad Gita, which is called sometimes the "Bible of Krishnaism". Out of many deities, Krishna is, Bahá'í.

• Yet another way of comparing relative popularity of various religions in Russia is to look at the numbers of registered local congregations (Christian parishes, Muslim mosques, and so on). According to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), there were 21,664 registered religious organizations in Russia as of January 1, 2004, including 20,403 local congregations. 10,767 were Russian Orthodox; 3,397 were Muslim; almost 5,000 were various Protestant organizations and groups; 267 were Old Believers; 256 were Judaic; 235 were Roman Catholic; 180 were Buddhist. However, religions can vary significantly in numbers of followers per congregation, and some religions may be somewhat "under-registered" for various reasons.

Using these numbers, one attempt to estimate numbers of practicing followers of different religions in Russia arrives at the following results: 3-15 million Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ�; 2.8 million Muslim A Muslim or Moslem is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements.[; over 1.5 million Protestant Protestantism is one of the four major divisions within Christianity together with the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The term is most closely tied to those groups that separated from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation (including at least 900 thousand Pentecostals Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, a Greek term describing the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the); no more than 500 thousand Buddhists Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an; 300 thousand followers of New religious movements A new religious movement is a faith-based community, or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of recent origin. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, in which case they will be distinct from pre-existing denominations. Scholars studying the sociology of religion have almost unanimously; 60-200 thousand Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called; 50-80 thousand Old Believers In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers became separated after 1666–1667 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Old Believers continue liturgical practices which the Russian Orthodox Church maintained before the implementation of these reforms.

One experiences similar problems when trying to determine the number of atheists Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one in Russia. As discussed above, the majority of Russians are non-observant, and more than 50% never attend church services of any kind. On the other hand, numbers of those self-identifying as "non-religious" are much lower, and, further, vary wildly from poll to poll (from 14% to 36%). Numbers of self-identified atheists are often as low as 4%. ^[18][19]

Dynamics

Several mechanisms are responsible for gradual changes in the religious structure of Russia.

• Most religions present in Russia are ethnic-based. Expectedly, their prevalence changes as their respective ethnic groups grow or shrink. The most prominent example of this is Judaism Judaism is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people. Judaism, originating in the Hebrew Bible and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed -- the number of ethnic Jews in Russia shrunk by more than a factor of 10 since mid-20th century. Number of Lutherans Lutheranism is a theological movement to reform Christianity with the teaching of justification by grace through faith alone. Lutheranism identifies with the theology confessed in the Augsburg Confession and the other writings compiled in the Book of Concord. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology and Mennonites The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders. The teachings of the Mennonites were founded on their belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, which they held to with great has declined somewhat since Soviet era due to emigration of Volga Germans The Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. They maintained German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed, Roman Catholics, and Mennonites. Many Volga Germans emigrated to the Midwestern United States, Canada, Brazil,. Conversely, the population of Islamic ethnic groups continues to grow (from 8% of total population of the country in 1989 to at least 10% in 2002), and so does prevalence of Islam.
• Missionary work of various Western Protestant and "new religious" groups in Russia since 1990 contributed to growth of a number of non-ethnic religions and faiths.
• There are indications that some traditional religions are on the decline as well. Old believers are down to less than 1% compared to 10% in Czarist Russia. Buddhism is on the decline among its traditional followers in Southern Asia, supplanted by Shamanism.
• On the other hand, the New Age movement has led to emergence of some "non-traditional" religions in large cities. Polls indicate that around 1% of population of Moscow and St.Petersburg self-identify as Buddhists. Many of these are Slavic and have no ethnic connection to Buddhism.
• Like many other developed countries, Russia experiences growth of Neopaganism, but it is difficult to quantify. On one hand, the number of people who believe in various occult and paranormal phenomena is quite high, even comparable to the number of Christians. Slavic mythology is popular. On the other hand, the prevalence of overt neopagans appears to be low.

Registered religious organizations

The following is a detailed breakdown of numbers of registered religious organizations in Russia as of December 2006^[20].

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