I believe that, as in many cultures, religion is at the core of Russia's culture and many parallels can be drawn between human behavior as a whole and peoples' relationship to their faith and with the faiths of others.With this theory in mind, I decided to look at the Russian Orthodox Church as a microcosmic world of Russian culture and life today while I was living in Moscow in 2000. A fundamental part of Russia's cultural and historical development since 988 A.D., the Orthodox Church has played a crucial role in the shaping of the country's soul and consciousness.
After the debilitating rule of the Communists, the Church is faring better than ten years ago, but not as well as many had hoped. Not even the infamous law of 1997, which limited the rights of foreign missionaries on Russian soil, stopped the number of people exploring faiths other than the traditional choice of their forefathers.I wanted to find out why this was occurring. I was curious about why people choose the faith they do and if a traditional and historical religion has an advantage over so called foreign belief systems.
I had several reasons for choosing the Moscow branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON or Hare Krishnas)to compare with the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church I photographed is a small, neighborhood church, the Church of Saints Kosmos and Damian.After observing the Hare Krishnas, I decided there were few faiths whose worship differed more from the rituals of the Orthodox Church. ISKCON is also, by many standards, considered a cult, which is precisely what the Church has been fighting against for the past ten years.There is also an interesting similarity between the faiths--the Hare Krishnas worship in Sanskrit, while the Orthodox perform their mass in Church Slavanic, both considered foreign languages. The Church's continued refusal to convert its liturgy into Russian is one of the reasons frequently sited by those who have left the Church as a reason for converting to a religion that will worship in believers' native tongue. But, that fact has not stopped ISKCON from being one of the fastest growing faiths in Russia.
Whatever faiths the Russian people choose, their right to make that decision unhampered by the political carrying-ons of Moscow is one of the sacred promises of a free nation. As religious leaders, politicians, and people work through the issues surrounding that right and the impact it will have on their culture, they are making an united effort to put their country back on the path of industrial development with room for humanity, a goal they left behind over 70 year ago.
*All interviews were conducted and translated by the author, with the aim of keeping the meaning the