Specific Features of the Postsecular Society in Russia

Abstract

The author believes that the postsecular society in Russia has a number of features that distinguish it from the European model. The specifics of the postsecular society in Russia are determined by the form of Soviet secularization and the cultural and sociopolitical context within which the transition to postsecularity was taking place. The author considers Soviet secularization through the concept of political religion, the essence of which is the sacralisation of social and political phenomena and the replacement of the transcendental sacred with the immanent. The results of Soviet secularization were different from those of Western secularization. In particular, legal worldview pluralism, which had become the norm for Western secular societies, was not possible in Soviet society, no "market of religions" emerged, etc. The weakening and collapse of the Soviet regime determined the context in which Russian society was transitioning to a postsecular state, and this context was different from that in Europe. The author identifies the following features of the postsecular society in Russia. (1) Acute polemics related to the presence of religion in secular spheres (education, science, army, etc.). More often, there is no dialogue between the bearers of secular and religious worldviews, but their confrontation, which is complicated by explicit or implicit government intervention. (2) Convergence between the state and the dominant religious organisation, the Russian Orthodox Church. In Western societies, the postsecular activization of religious organisations does not lead to a stronger connection between the state and any religious groups. (3) Religion has been revived in Russia not so much to perform its own religious function - to save the soul, but to solve a number of worldly tasks - ideological, cultural and identificational. The postsecular Russian Orthodoxy reminds a secular religion. 4) Russia's transition to a postsecular state was due to: a change in the policy of the authorities towards religion; a transition from suppression to religious freedom, which was later replaced by a policy of supporting traditional religions and restricting all others; the fall of the Soviet regime and its political religion; the formation of a new state and the problem of its legitimisation; anomie and a crisis of values in society, which is used to having the only official worldview supported by the state. These factors, along with the legacy of Soviet secularization, predetermined the form of religious revival and the characteristics of the Russian postsecular society.