Transformation of Confessional Policy in the Late Soviet Union: Causes and Consequences

This article analyzes the transformation of state confessional policy in the late Soviet Union, examining its causes and consequences. Drawing on archival materials, it demonstrates significant shifts in state–church relations that occurred on the eve of the millennium of the Christianization of Rus' and in the period following the official celebrations. The analysis shows that the weakening of state pressure on the Church was largely driven by the political considerations of the Soviet leadership. However, the liberalization of state–church relations initiated in the late 1980s became the foundation for a fundamental reassessment of the role of the Church in the life of Russian society and the state. The dismantling of the system of total state control over the Russian Orthodox Church and the abandonment of state atheism required formal legal regulation. New legislation was developed within a secular and liberal framework, without sufficient regard for the cultural and historical specifics of Russian state formation. This, in turn, created the risk of further secularization of the Church and the deepening fragmentation of a weakened post-Soviet identity. The active stance of the Church, its current Primate Patriarch Kirill, and a number of deputies of the State Duma made it possible to revise Soviet-era legislation and to ensure a gradual shift in the Russian state’s approach: from a secular-liberal model of state–church relations toward a historically rooted symphonic model.