Religion was down, but never really out, during the Communists' 74-year reign in the Soviet Union, according to a Russian scholar at Utah State University.
Lynn R. Eliason, a professor of languages and author of a new book on the Soviet rebirth of religion - "Perestroika of the Russian Soul" - said religion has never been purged from the Russian psyche."There was a time when many people thought religion was dead in the Soviet Union, but it was very much alive, even during the darkest period of Stalin's rule," Eliason said.
A frequent visitor to the Soviet Union, Eliason said Communist officials, many of whom were "closet believers," continued to have their children baptized and requested church funerals for themselves. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev himself was baptized, he noted.
"I remember going to a church service during the Breshnev period, and I saw a number of prominent Communists and even soldiers in uniform there," he said. "Religion is such a big part of the Russian psyche that even those who proclaim their atheism have some connection to it."
With the demise of communism and the disintegration of central rule, religion immediately reawakened with all of its past vigor.
"I think this is the one institution that survived communism better than any other," Eliason said. "Religion figured into the idea of perestroika just as much as politics and economics."
The turning point came when the late Russian Orthodox Patriarch Pimen met with Gorbachev in 1988, Eliason said. After that, the Soviet leadership and media began extolling the role of the church in the structuring of the Soviet Union.
The emerging society recognized the need for religion both from a personal, spiritual standpoint and for the sake of social order, he said.
"Just as it was the spirit of the church that saved the Soviet Union during World War II, it is the resurrection of the Russian soul that will be its salvation now, if anything is going to save it."
Religion has resurfaced, but it's not the same as it was, Eliason said. The Russian populace is extremely literate and restless, and "many of those who left the (Russian Orthodox) church have outgrown its orthodoxy," he said.
The Orthodox faith thrives on history and tradition and it doesn't change, "yet people have changed and are looking for something more relevant," according to Eliason.
Different religions are "streaming" into the now-open Soviet Union and most are welcomed by the government and the people, he said, but they face resistance from the Russian Orthodox Church and other potential problems.
"They will have to be careful because a lot of people will be coming to them for the novelty or for material advantages," he warned. "Some of the Russian people may see these churches as a way of bettering their standard of living."
The churches that succeed will be those that proceed slowly and methodically, developing a permanent, constructive base.
"A Russian journalist told me last year in reference to church efforts that the churches ought to send missionaries to the far east of the Soviet Union, to Siberia, where a lot of young people are looking for religion."
Some of what the Russian people know about other religions is based on years of distorted information, Eliason said. For example, he said many Russians still think of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as polygamists.
Nevertheless, he predicted that the LDS Church and others will make significant inroads in Russia.
"We have seen in the past that the Baptists have done well, Pentecostals have done well, Adventists have done well, and this was during the Communist era," he said.
Eliason's book is available through the publisher McFarland & Co., North Carolina.
The Associated Press reported that religious leaders rejoiced at last week's restoration of Gorbachev to power after the attempted coup. The also praised Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II and the popular resistance that helped overcome the abortive coup.
Prior to its end, religious leaders in this country and abroad, along with Western government heads, had denounced the attempted overthrow.
Such reaction had come from the U.S. National Council of Churches, and in Europe from the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Conference of European Churches.
They urged "commitment to democracy based on human rights and fundamental freedoms" and pledged support to Soviet churches "as they stand fast in defence of these principles."
The Rev. Bruce Rigdon, head of U.S.-Soviet relations for the New York-based National Council of Churches, said Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II had been influential in the crisis.