Generally, Russians perceive the emerging role of religion more negatively than it was twenty-five years ago; however, the majority says that religion helps them to deal with life problems.

MOSCOW, July 27, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the information describing how the attitudes of Russians toward religion have changed over the recent twenty-five years.

Fewer Russians favor the spread of religious views today than it was a quarter of a century ago: whereas in 1990 most of respondents (61%) agreed that spreading the religion was good for the society, today only one-third of them (36%) think so. Forty-one percent of Russians expected that spreading religious beliefs would have positive effects on them personally; now 33% of respondents think so. This stance is mainly shared by representatives of the Orthodox Church and other religions, elderly generations and residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On the contrary, more Russians believe that spreading religion is bad for the society in general (5% in 1990; 23% in 2015) and for people individually (3% and 8%, respectively). Simultaneously, the share of those who think that spreading religion will have no effects on the society has considerably increased (28% in 2015 vs 18% in 1990); the share of those who think that the spread of religious values will have no effects on themselves personally is almost the same (43% and 39%, respectively).

Russians are likely to approve of the construction of a new church or a prayer hall in their neighborhood (48% favor the idea); however, when it comes to constructing a place of worships for other religions, this share is smaller (20%). Adherents of different religions split up in their opinions. The Orthodox Christians, like Russians in general, are likely to support the construction of a church (54%) or are indifferent (23%); but they are less positive about the idea to build a house for other confessions (20%). Followers of other faiths perceive the idea to construct a religious building to promote their religions in a more positive way (58%); they also favor the construction of religious buildings for other confessions (42%).

Much more Russians report that the religion plays an important role in their lives than it was in 1990s: over a quarter of a century the share of those who say that religion helps them in certain situations has doubled from 23% to 55% (however, this share is smaller among the non-believers – 15%). At the same time, the number of those who do not think that religion helped them has increased from 55% to 39%.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted July 11-12, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.   

*In 1990 the all-Russian survey involved urban and rural population aged 16 and over; sample size was 766 people.

** In 1990 this question was not asked

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!