1988–2000s

Revival after communism

From the millennium of Rus' in 1988 and the fall of communism, Orthodox churches across Eastern Europe reopen, rebuild and see millions return to an Orthodox identity.

A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy — Nathaniel Davis, Westview Press (1995)
Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2014)
Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2017)
Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2017)

Well established faithidentitypolitics

In 1988 Gorbachev allowed the Russian church to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of the baptism of Rus’ in public, and a 1990 law guaranteed freedom of conscience. After 1991 churches and monasteries reopened in their thousands, often restored by volunteers from ruins. Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, blown up in 1931, was rebuilt and consecrated in 2000.

A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy — Nathaniel Davis, Westview Press (1995)
The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)

The share of Russians calling themselves Orthodox rose from 31% in 1991 to 72% in 2008, according to Pew’s analysis of surveys, while regular churchgoing stayed low.

Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2014)

Similar revivals took place in Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia and Serbia, where Orthodox identity became bound up with post-communist national identity.

Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2017)
Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century — Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center (2017)

The revival also brought controversy: the close partnership between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kremlin, and laws favouring Orthodoxy over other faiths, troubled many believers inside and outside Russia.

A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy — Nathaniel Davis, Westview Press (1995)
The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)

Why it matters today

Orthodox Christianity

Across Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Georgia, large majorities now call themselves Orthodox, though in Russia only a small share attend church weekly. For many, Orthodoxy is above all a mark of national belonging; for others it is a hard-won personal faith. Close ties between churches and governments, especially in Russia, divide believers.