State-Confessional Relations of the Perestroika Period: Prerequisites for Russian Religious Policy

Abstract

The article studies the process of changing religious policy in the context of socio-political reforms of the 1980s; analyzes the factors that contributed to the soviet religious policy and the impact of the policy’s changes on the religious life of the 1990s. It discusses the period when Russian society was continuing to looking for a consensus on the role of religion in the public and political spheres. Based on the state archives materials (The State archive of the Russian Federation and The Russian State archive of modern history) this research aims to identify the functions of the Union and Republican Councils for religious Affairs as the key institutions implementing religious policy. The author comes to the conclusion that the 1980s religious policy was manifested in the conceptual rethinking of the place of religion in everyday discourse. Changes in religious policy have caused not only a development of the relationship between the state and the faithful. They contributed to the new phenomena of soviet society, for example, certain religious groups, previously recognized as “extremist”, have become actively involved in the legal field and “normal” social activities. An important event was the celebration a millennium since the 988 Baptism of Rus’ when Gorbachev received Patriarch Pimen and other Holy Synod members inside the Kremlin. The transition to new forms and methods of interaction with religious institutions was realized. The faith reemerged into the public sphere and believers engaged in charity, education, mission and publishing. As a result of the resurgence of religious freedom and the democratization of the legal regulation regarding religious organizations was the adoption in 1990 of the new law “On freedom of conscience and religious organizations”.