HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE LATER SOVIET PERIOD’S RELIGIOSITY IN THE CONTEXT OF REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN THE POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: BASING ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE TAMBOV AND SVERDLOVSK REGIONS

Abstract

The religious revival experienced by Russia in its post-Soviet period is the object of a close study and has received ambiguous assessment of researchers. This phenomenon combines the complex processes that have multidirectional and contradictory nature. Qualitative and quantitative indicators of this revival can be objectively assessed only in connection with the clarification of prior to them cultural and historical premises. Historical and comparative analysis included comparison of main manifestations of religiosity in their spatial and time dimension indicates the presence in the Soviet reality the conditions predetermined “revitalization” of religion in the post-Soviet period. Among the main reasons of “religious revival” are called: the preservation of religiosity on the level of rituals and household traditions; the reproduction of the practicing religion in the narrow circle of deeply religious people; and the growth of interest in religion in the 1970s in different groups of the Soviet society. The data for two regions are analyzed: the Tambov and Sverdlovsk; it discovers differences in the nature of religiosity of the people, predefined by historical and cultural processes. It allowed receive important conclusions about the mechanisms of preservation and reproduction of religiosity. The study used the documents of regional archives and memoirs of eyewitnesses of the events collected during the field researches.