The Russian Orthodox Church and State Power
The Russian Orthodox Church and State Power
The relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state has been one of the longest-lasting and most influential church–government partnerships in world history. Since the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988, religious institutions have helped legitimize political authority, shape national identity, preserve cultural traditions, and influence foreign policy. At different times the Church has served as an independent moral authority, an arm of imperial government, a persecuted institution under Communist rule, and an influential partner of the modern Russian state.
The articles collected here examine this relationship across more than one thousand years, presenting historical scholarship, government documents, journal articles, think-tank analyses, and news reporting from a wide variety of perspectives.
Historical Foundations
The collection begins with the conversion of Prince Vladimir and the adoption of Eastern Orthodoxy by Kievan Rus', establishing the religious traditions that later became central to Russian civilization. It explores Byzantine concepts such as symphonia, which envisioned cooperation between church and state while maintaining distinct religious and political responsibilities.
Articles also examine the growth of the Russian Orthodox Church under the princes of Moscow, the Tsars, and the Russian Empire, including Peter the Great's replacement of the patriarchate with the Holy Synod and the imperial doctrine of "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality."
Imperial Russia and National Identity
Many sources analyze how the Church became intertwined with imperial government, education, military service, law, and the expansion of the Russian Empire. They examine both the Church's role in supporting political stability and criticism that religious institutions became increasingly dependent upon state authority.
Additional articles explore missionary work, church administration, public ceremonies, imperial ideology, and the development of Russian national identity.
Revolution, Soviet Rule, and Religious Survival
The Bolshevik Revolution fundamentally transformed church–state relations. The Soviet government confiscated church property, imprisoned clergy, promoted state atheism, and attempted to eliminate religion from public life.
Several articles document Communist persecution, the League of the Militant Godless, Patriarch Tikhon, Metropolitan Sergius, Stalin's partial restoration of the Church during World War II, and the gradual religious revival that emerged during the Gorbachev period before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Post-Soviet Revival
Following the dissolution of the USSR, the Russian Orthodox Church rapidly regained churches, monasteries, educational institutions, and public influence. Articles examine the 1997 Religion Law, restitution of church property, rebuilding of major cathedrals, and renewed cooperation between church leaders and the Russian government.
The collection also discusses debates over whether this revival strengthened civil society or recreated patterns of close political partnership inherited from earlier periods.
Putin, Patriarch Kirill, and Contemporary Politics
A substantial portion of the collection examines the relationship between President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill. These sources explore ceremonial cooperation, public messaging, nationalism, military symbolism, constitutional identity, and the Church's expanding influence in Russian public life.
The materials include both scholarly analyses and contemporary reporting concerning the Church's role in domestic politics, public education, traditional values, historical memory, and national identity.
The Russian World and Foreign Policy
Numerous articles focus on the ideology commonly known as the "Russian World" (Russkiy Mir), which links Orthodoxy, Russian civilization, language, history, and culture.
Researchers debate whether this concept functions primarily as a religious worldview, a cultural identity, or a geopolitical framework supporting Russian foreign policy. The collection examines Orthodox diplomacy, religious soft power, influence abroad, relations with Orthodox communities outside Russia, and the Church's participation in international affairs.
Ukraine, War, and International Debate
Many recent sources analyze the Russian Orthodox Church's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Topics include theological justifications for war, internal disagreements among clergy, sanctions, religious diplomacy, international criticism, Ukrainian church independence, and divisions within global Orthodoxy.
These articles represent a wide range of academic, journalistic, governmental, and religious viewpoints documenting one of the most significant controversies in contemporary Orthodox history.
Religious Freedom and Public Debate
The collection also examines legal and political questions involving religious freedom, minority faiths, church property, education, human rights, freedom of expression, and traditional-values legislation.
Several reports evaluate Russia's treatment of religious minorities while others examine debates over the proper relationship between religious institutions and secular government.
Conclusion
The history of the Russian Orthodox Church demonstrates how religion and political power have continually shaped one another across changing historical eras. The Church has served as a spiritual institution, cultural guardian, national symbol, political partner, and, at times, a target of severe repression.
The sources collected here present multiple scholarly interpretations of this complex relationship, illustrating both the historical contributions of Orthodoxy to Russian civilization and the continuing debates surrounding religion, state authority, nationalism, foreign policy, religious liberty, and democratic governance in contemporary Russia.
Historical Perspectives
The Russian Orthodox Church After Communism
Pew Research Center | Religion in Russia
Reviews the remarkable institutional recovery of the Orthodox Church after 1991 and its renewed partnership with the Russian government.
The Russian Church Before Peter the Great
Cambridge University Press | The Cambridge History of Russia
Surveys the considerable political independence enjoyed by the patriarchate before imperial reforms centralized state authority.
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Explores the cathedral's destruction under Stalin, reconstruction after the Soviet collapse, and symbolic role in modern Russian politics.
Monastic Landholding and State Power
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Russian Orthodox Church
Reviews debates over monastery wealth and the government's repeated efforts to regulate ecclesiastical landownership.
Church Architecture as Political Symbol
Smarthistory | Russian Architecture
Examines how monumental cathedrals expressed the political ambitions of rulers alongside religious devotion.
Imperial and Revolutionary Transformations
Church Blessings of Tsarist Rule
Discusses the ceremonial and theological role of bishops and patriarchs in legitimizing the authority of Russian rulers through coronations and public ritual.
Orthodoxy and Revolution
| Simon Dixon | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | 2018
Examines the restoration of the Moscow Patriarchate during the revolutionary crisis and debates over ecclesiastical authority, monarchy, and democratic reform.
The Russian State and Its Honor
| Andrei P. Tsygankov | Cambridge University Press | 2012
Traces political ideas connecting Russia’s international status, Orthodox civilization, the Third Rome tradition, and resistance to Western domination.
The Church and the Time of Troubles
| Isaiah Gruber | Cornell University Press | 2012
Shows how Orthodox institutions mobilized resources, interpreted political legitimacy, and assisted communities during famine, invasion, and civil warfare.
Popular Orthodoxy and Identity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia
| Stella Rock | Cambridge University Press | 2012
Explores religious practices and identities that survived outside formal Church structures despite decades of Soviet regulation and repression.
Orthodox Political Authority before the Romanovs
| Isaiah Gruber | Cornell University Press | 2012
Studies the interaction of monasteries, bishops, popular religion, and rival governments during Russia’s early-seventeenth-century political collapse.
The Russian Orthodox Church in Imperial Russia, 1721–1917
| Gregory L. Freeze | Cambridge University Press | 2006
Explains how Peter the Great’s synodal system subordinated Church government to the monarchy and how that arrangement collapsed during the 1917 Revolution.
Russian Orthodoxy: Church, People, and Politics in Imperial Russia
| Gregory L. Freeze | Cambridge University Press | 2006
Surveys the Church’s institutional power, dependence on imperial administration, parish life, political functions, and relations with ordinary believers.
Church and State in Muscovite Russia
| Paul Bushkovitch | Cambridge University Press | 2006
Explores negotiations and conflicts between tsars, patriarchs, monasteries, and bishops before Peter the Great imposed direct state supervision.
Third Rome and the Russian State
| Marshall Poe | Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas | 1997
Reconsiders the doctrine of Moscow as the Third Rome and its historical relationship to Russian monarchy, imperial expansion, and political ideology.
The Russian Orthodox Church versus the State
| Mikhail Shkarovskii | Slavonic and East European Review | 1995
Describes early Soviet attempts to divide, infiltrate, and control the Orthodox Church before Metropolitan Sergius’s declaration of political loyalty.
The Orthodox Church and Soviet Nationality Policy
| Bohdan Bociurkiw | Cambridge University Press | 1984
Examines how Soviet officials used religious institutions to manage national identity while suppressing ecclesiastical independence and religious dissent.
The Soviet State, 1946–1956: A Decade of the New Orthodoxy
| Elizabeth M. Bennett | Journal of Church and State | 1965
Studies the carefully regulated position of the Orthodox Church after Stalin’s wartime revival and during the early Cold War.
The Old Believer Schism and State Power
| Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explains how Church reforms backed by the monarchy produced the Old Believer schism and centuries of state persecution against religious dissenters.
The Baptism of Rus' and the Origins of Church–State Partnership
Encyclopaedia Britannica | The Christianization of Kievan Rus | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explains how Prince Vladimir's conversion in 988 established Eastern Orthodoxy as the religion of Kievan Rus', laying the foundations for a close alliance between religious authority and political rule.
Peter the Great's Reorganization of the Church
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Peter the Great | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Describes Peter the Great's abolition of the patriarchate and replacement of church leadership with the Holy Synod, bringing the Church under direct state supervision.
Patriarch Nikon and the Tsar
| Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Describes Patriarch Nikon’s claim to superior spiritual authority and the political struggle that led Tsar Alexis to remove him from Church leadership.
Imperial and Soviet Foundations
Religion in the Soviet Union
| Alpha History | Alpha History | 2020
Provides an overview of Bolshevik antireligious policy, Church persecution, state atheism, and the compromises that allowed limited Orthodox survival.
The Bolsheviks’ War against Religion
| Georgy Manaev | Russia Beyond | June 17, 2019
Reviews early Soviet attacks on Church property, clergy, monasteries, and public religious observance.
The League of the Militant Godless
| Erin Blakemore | History | April 23, 2019
Describes Soviet campaigns to eradicate religion through propaganda, closures, executions, and organizations promoting state atheism.
Soviet Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church
| Nicolas Werth | Sciences Po | September 24, 2010
Documents the destruction of Orthodox institutions and the imprisonment or execution of clergy during the first decades of Communist rule.
The 1927 Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius
| Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia | ROCOR | 2007
Discusses Metropolitan Sergius’s declaration of loyalty to the Soviet government and the lasting conflict it produced within the Russian Orthodox diaspora.
Stalin and the Russian Orthodox Church
| Steven Merritt Miner | History Today | 2003
Examines Stalin’s tactical restoration of the Church during World War II as an instrument of patriotism, mobilization, and international diplomacy.
The Church under Soviet Rule
| Library of Congress | Revelations from the Russian Archives | 1992
Presents archival material documenting Communist antireligious campaigns, confiscations, propaganda, arrests, and government control over religious institutions.
The Rebirth of Orthodoxy after Communism
| Bill Keller | The New York Times | January 7, 1991
Examines the Church’s attempt to rebuild its institutions and public authority as Communist power disintegrated.
The Millennium of Christianity in Russia
| Michael Parks | Los Angeles Times | June 12, 1988
Reports on the Soviet government’s support for the 1988 millennium celebrations, a turning point in the public restoration of the Orthodox Church.
Gorbachev Meets Patriarch Pimen
| Gary Lee | The Washington Post | April 30, 1988
Describes Gorbachev’s meeting with Church leaders and the loosening of state restrictions on religious institutions near the end of the Soviet period.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet State
| Philip Walters | The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | May 1986
Explains how the Church survived comprehensive repression by accepting a restricted institutional role under Communist supervision.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet State
| Philip Walters | The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | May 1986
Surveys Soviet persecution, Stalin’s wartime revival of the institutional Church, and the continuing restrictions imposed on Orthodox activity.
The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great
| Theophan Prokopovich | Fordham University Internet Modern History Sourcebook | 1721
Presents the imperial regulation that reorganized Russian Church government and justified replacing patriarchal authority with a state-supervised synod.
The Restoration of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1943
| Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library | Presidential Library
Describes Stalin’s meeting with Orthodox metropolitans and his authorization of a revived patriarchate during the Second World War.
The Most Holy Governing Synod
| Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com
Describes the governing institution through which Russian emperors supervised Church administration from the eighteenth century until 1917.
Peter the Great and the Holy Synod
| Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explains Peter the Great’s abolition of the patriarchate and creation of a synodal administration subordinate to the imperial government.
Patriarch Tikhon and Bolshevik Power
| Encyclopedia.com | Encyclopedia.com
Profiles Patriarch Tikhon’s resistance to Bolshevik confiscation and violence, as well as the pressure placed on him by the new Soviet state.
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality
| Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explains the imperial doctrine that combined Orthodox religion, absolute monarchy, and Russian national identity under Nicholas I.
Konstantin Pobedonostsev and Imperial Reaction
| Encyclopaedia Britannica | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Profiles the chief procurator of the Holy Synod who defended autocracy, opposed parliamentary government, and exercised extensive control over Church affairs.
Church Leadership and Political Authority
The Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Holy Synod | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explains how the office of Chief Procurator allowed the Russian emperor to supervise the Church through a senior government official.
Patriarch Hermogenes and Resistance to Foreign Rule
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Hermogenes | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Examines how Patriarch Hermogenes became a symbol of resistance against Polish occupation, demonstrating the Church's ability to mobilize political opposition.
Patriarch Filaret and the Rise of the Romanov State
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Filaret | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Explores how Patriarch Filaret, father of Tsar Michael Romanov, exercised extraordinary influence over both church and state during the early Romanov dynasty, helping stabilize Russia after the Time of Troubles.
Orthodox Canon Law and Civil Government
Surveys Orthodox teachings concerning relations between ecclesiastical authority and civil government, including principles of cooperation and limits of obedience.
Church Councils and Imperial Authority
Encyclopedia.com | Russian Orthodox Church | Encyclopedia.com
Reviews the role of church councils in legitimizing rulers, defining doctrine, and reinforcing state authority throughout imperial Russia.
Contemporary Church–State Alliance
Obstacles to Covenantal Pluralism in Contemporary Russia
| Jekatyerina Dunajeva | Review of Faith & International Affairs | 2025
Examines how state favoritism toward traditional religions, especially Orthodoxy, limits the development of equal and pluralistic religious citizenship.
The Pact of the Old Guard: Religion, Law, and Politics for a Russia at War
| Kristina Stoeckl | Journal of Law and Religion | 2024
Examines the Russian Orthodox Church’s changing political identities and its consolidation into a dependable ideological partner of the Putin government.
Religion and State in Russia: Introduction
| M. Christian Green | Journal of Law and Religion | 2024
Introduces research on religious privilege, political repression, extremism laws, and the Russian Orthodox Church’s position within the post-Soviet state.
From the Red Belt to the Bible Belt?
| Andrey Shcherbak | Nationalities Papers | 2023
Explores connections between regional Orthodox religiosity, conservative values, electoral participation, and support for Russia’s governing political establishment.
The Symphony Is Over?
| Andrey Shcherbak | Problems of Post-Communism | 2022
Investigates tensions between the Kremlin and Church leaders during COVID-19, when public-health restrictions challenged ecclesiastical claims to autonomy.
The Patriotic Turn in Russia
| Gaziza Shakhanova and Petr Kratochvíl | Politics and Religion | 2022
Studies the convergence of Church and state policies concerning patriotism, historical memory, national education, and loyalty to the Russian government.
Church–State Cooperation and Its Impact on Freedom of Religion
| Mikhail Antonov | Review of Faith & International Affairs | 2022
Analyzes the legal consequences of Russian state cooperation with the Orthodox Church and the resulting inequalities among religious communities.
Russia: The Official Church Chooses the State
| Sergei Solodovnik | Russian Politics and Law | 2014
Argues that the Moscow Patriarchate increasingly chose political partnership and institutional privilege over independence from the Russian government.
Church, State, and Belief in Post-Soviet Russia
| Zoe Knox | Slavic Review | 2012
Reviews scholarship on the political position of religion and the Orthodox Church during Russia’s transition from Soviet atheism.
The Orthodox Church and Russian Politics
| Irina Papkova | Oxford University Press | 2011
Challenges simplified accounts of the Church as merely controlled by the Kremlin while documenting its political factions, institutional interests, and limited autonomy.
Relations Between Church and State in Russia Today
| Giovanni Codevilla | Religion, State & Society | 2008
Considers whether the privileged position assigned to Orthodoxy is compatible with Russia’s constitutional commitments to secularism and religious equality.
The Russian Orthodox Church and Political Party Platforms
| Irina Papkova | Journal of Church and State | 2007
Compares Russian political-party positions toward Orthodoxy and evaluates the Church’s influence across nationalist, Communist, liberal, and centrist movements.
Russian Orthodox Christians and Their Orientation Toward Church and State
| Christopher Marsh | Journal of Church and State | 2005
Uses public-opinion evidence to explore Orthodox believers’ views about political authority, national identity, and separation of church and state.
Orthodox Christianity, Civil Society, and Russian Democracy
| Christopher Marsh | Journal of Church and State | 2004
Considers whether Orthodox institutions and values strengthen civic engagement or reinforce authoritarian political traditions in post-Soviet Russia.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Future of Russia
| Derek H. Davis | Journal of Church and State | 2002
Discusses the Church’s potential role in shaping Russian democracy, national identity, civil society, and relations between religious communities.
Church, State, and the Putin System
The Russian Orthodox Church as an Institutional Arm of the Putin Regime in Israel
| Institute for National Security Studies | INSS | July 30, 2026
Investigates how Russian Orthodox institutions, properties, and religious networks in Israel can support Moscow’s political influence and strategic interests.
From Altar to Embassy: The Russian Orthodox Church in Russian Foreign Policy
| Stijn van Kessel | University of Groningen | June 17, 2026
Examines the Russian Orthodox Church’s evolution into an influential diplomatic and ideological institution that advances Kremlin foreign-policy objectives.
Meeting with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia
| President of Russia | Kremlin | February 1, 2026
Documents an official meeting between Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill that illustrates the continuing ceremonial and political partnership between the presidency and Church leadership.
The Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on Kremlin Foreign Policy
| Anna Zhdanova | St Antony’s College, University of Oxford | January 31, 2026
Argues that the Church should be understood not merely as a servant of the Kremlin but as a participant in developing and legitimizing Russian foreign policy.
How the Russian Orthodox Church Became a Weapon of Political Warfare
| Joseph L. Votel and Elizabeth Braw | Foreign Policy Research Institute | October 27, 2025
Describes the Church as both a defensive shield for Kremlin narratives and an offensive instrument for influencing political communities abroad.
Church Is a Body of State? How the Kremlin Wields Religion as a Weapon
| International Centre for Defence and Security | ICDS | October 3, 2025
Analyzes the Moscow Patriarchate’s role in promoting Russian militarism, anti-Western rhetoric, and the Kremlin’s claim to a special civilizational mission.
Orthodox Patriarch Kirill Blesses Crosses Engraved with Putin’s Initials
| Le Monde with AFP | Le Monde | January 8, 2025
Reports on Patriarch Kirill blessing military crosses bearing Putin’s initials, symbolically merging presidential authority, Orthodox ritual, and military service.
To Whom Much Is Given: The Russian Orthodox Church’s Religio-Legal Justifications for War
| Zachary Negron | Journal of Church and State | 2025
Examines how Orthodox theological and legal language has been used to construct moral and institutional justifications for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Baton and the Cross: Russia’s Toxic Relationship with the Orthodox Church
| Edward Lucas | The Times | October 26, 2024
Reviews Lucy Ash’s history of the recurring alliance between Russian rulers and Orthodox hierarchs from the imperial era through Putin’s government.
Late-Stage Putinism: The War in Ukraine and Russia’s Shifting Ideology
| Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard | European Council on Foreign Relations | June 18, 2024
Explores how the Kremlin increasingly combines nationalism, militarism, historical mythology, and Orthodox traditionalism into an official ideological system.
The Anti-War Faction in the Russian Orthodox Church Has Yet to Find Its Voice
| Ksenia Luchenko | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | March 4, 2024
Describes the isolation of anti-war priests and believers within a Church hierarchy that has publicly embraced the Kremlin’s military campaign.
From Pulpit to Propaganda Machine
| Anastasiia Carrier | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism | February 6, 2024
Traces how sermons, Church media, religious imagery, and statements by senior clergy have helped normalize and sanctify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill and the Putin Era
Discusses Patriarch Kirill's close relationship with President Vladimir Putin and debates over the Church's support for state policies.
History in Patriarch Kirill’s Sermons During the First Year of the Full-Scale War
| Vebjørn L. Horsfjord | Religion, State & Society | 2024
Studies Kirill’s selective use of Russian and Christian history to portray the invasion as a defensive, sacred, and civilizational struggle.
How Nationalist Imperialism Became Russia’s State Ideology
| Andrei Kolesnikov | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | December 6, 2023
Explains how imperial nostalgia, militarized history, and traditional values became pillars of Kremlin ideology, with Orthodoxy providing religious legitimacy.
Russian Orthodox Priests Face Persecution for Supporting Peace
| Dasha Litvinova | Associated Press | August 12, 2023
Reports on priests punished by Church authorities and the Russian state for replacing prayers for victory with prayers for peace or criticizing the invasion.
Why the Russian Orthodox Church Supports the War in Ukraine
| Ksenia Luchenko | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | January 31, 2023
Argues that Patriarch Kirill supports the invasion partly to preserve Moscow’s ecclesiastical authority across Russia’s former imperial territories.
How Stalin Enlisted the Orthodox Church to Help Control Ukraine
| Victoria Smolkin | Aeon | January 23, 2023
Shows how Stalin revived a tightly controlled Moscow Patriarchate during World War II and later used it to absorb Ukrainian religious institutions.
Russia, Ukraine, and the Orthodox Church: Where Religion Meets Geopolitics and War
| Engjellushe Morina and Andrew Wilson | European Council on Foreign Relations | June 23, 2022
Explains how disputes over Orthodox jurisdiction, Ukrainian independence, and Moscow’s religious authority became intertwined with interstate conflict.
The Kremlin’s Use of Religion as a Foreign-Policy Instrument
| European Parliamentary Research Service | European Parliament | April 2022
Summarizes how the Kremlin uses Orthodox institutions, traditional-values campaigns, and religious diplomacy to advance Russian influence internationally.
Orthodoxy and Russian Identity
Orthodoxy and Russian National Identity
Robert D. Potts | The Triad of Nationality Revisited | University of Maine | 2016
Investigates how Orthodoxy has become a cultural marker of Russian identity even among citizens who are not regular churchgoers.
Orthodox Pilgrimage and Russian National Consciousness
Oxford Academic | Orthodox Pilgrimage Studies
Examines how pilgrimage traditions strengthened connections between religious devotion, imperial identity, and loyalty to the Russian state.
Moscow as the Third Rome
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Third Rome | Encyclopaedia Britannica
Describes the development of Moscow's identity as the successor to Rome and Constantinople, strengthening both imperial ideology and religious legitimacy.
Icons as Symbols of Political Authority
Explains how miracle-working icons became closely associated with military victories, dynastic legitimacy, and state ceremonies.
Patriotism, Memory, and Political Legitimacy
Russian Orthodox Politics of History and Politics of Memory
| Joachim Willems | Religion, State & Society | 2024
Examines how Church institutions shape public memory and participate in constructing a state ideology centered on patriotism and civilizational continuity.
War and Peace: Orthodox Icons and Putin’s Politics of the Sacred
| Amy Singleton Adams | Slavic Review | 2023
Studies Putin’s carefully staged encounters with Orthodox icons and the use of sacred imagery to connect presidential power, warfare, and Russian history.
Consolidating Values to Consolidate Power in Russia
| Marlene Laruelle | PONARS Eurasia | 2023
Analyzes the Kremlin’s official traditional-values doctrine and the special role assigned to Orthodoxy in reinforcing national unity and political power.
Not So Traditional After All?
| Katerina Tertytchnaya and Philipp Chapkovski | PONARS Eurasia | October 4, 2021
Evaluates whether the Church has successfully persuaded Russian citizens to adopt the traditional moral values promoted by Church and state leaders.
Building the Nation, Legitimizing the State
| Ekaterina Klimenko | Nationalities Papers | 2021
Analyzes state- and Church-supported historical exhibitions that reinterpret the Russian revolutions to legitimize contemporary political authority.
A Time of Persecution or a Time of Glory?
| Zuzanna Bogumił and Tatiana Voronina | Religion, State & Society | 2020
Examines Church commemorations of the 1917 Revolution and how memories of religious persecution are adapted to contemporary patriotic narratives.
The Russian World, Post-Truth, and Europe
| Igor Zevelev | PONARS Eurasia | June 12, 2017
Discusses how Russian World ideology combines culture, language, Orthodoxy, media narratives, and geopolitical claims in support of Kremlin policy.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Conservative Crusade
| Kristina Stoeckl | Current History | 2017
Describes the Church’s emergence as a major transnational force opposing liberalism, secularism, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ equality.
Traditional Values and the Russian Orthodox Church
| Kristina Stoeckl | Religion, State & Society | 2016
Traces the development of traditional-values discourse and its movement from Orthodox religious activism into Russian state policy and international diplomacy.
The Russian Orthodox Church as Moral Norm Entrepreneur
| Kristina Stoeckl | Religion, State & Society | 2016
Examines the Church’s attempts to reshape domestic and international human-rights debates around religious tradition, sovereignty, and family values.
On the Altar of the Fatherland
| Melissa Kirschke Stockdale | Cambridge University Press | 2016
Explains how Orthodox rituals, clergy, and popular piety sanctified military mobilization and loyalty to the Russian state during the First World War.
When Conservatism and Nationalism Form the Spurs of Kremlin Ideology
| Marlène Laruelle | PONARS Eurasia | 2015
Explores how Orthodox conservatism provides moral language for both Russia’s domestic authoritarianism and its increasingly confrontational foreign policy.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Conquest of the History Market
| Kathy Rousselet | PONARS Eurasia | 2015
Describes Church-sponsored multimedia history parks that condemn liberal revolution while reconciling Orthodox narratives with state praise for Soviet power.
Five Faces of Russia’s Soft Power
| Marlène Laruelle | PONARS Eurasia | 2015
Identifies Orthodox Christian networks as one of several channels through which Russia cultivates conservative and pro-Kremlin constituencies abroad.
The Politics of Traditional Values in Russia
| Maria Engström | PONARS Eurasia | 2014
Explains how state leaders use traditional-values rhetoric to distinguish Russia from the West and marginalize domestic political opposition.
Nationalism, Traditional Values, and Social Control
Russia Opens Cathedral Dedicated to Armed Forces
| Reuters | Reuters | June 22, 2020
Reports on the opening of a vast military cathedral symbolizing the integration of religious ritual with state commemoration and military power.
The Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces
| Steve Rosenberg | BBC News | June 8, 2020
Examines a military cathedral that combines Orthodox imagery, Soviet victory mythology, patriotism, and the political culture of Putin’s Russia.
Russians Are Getting Sick of Church
| Alexander Baunov | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | June 12, 2019
Describes public opposition to Church construction projects and the political risks created by the hierarchy’s close association with Putin.
The Church and Russia’s Culture Wars
| Andrew Roth | The Guardian | June 7, 2019
Reports on protests against a proposed cathedral and growing resistance to Church access to public land and political privilege.
The Russian Orthodox Church and Traditional Values
| Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch | December 11, 2018
Examines the social effects of laws supported by conservative political and religious institutions in the name of protecting children and traditional morality.
President and Patriarch: What Putin Wants from the Orthodox Church
| Andrey Pertsev | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | December 19, 2017
Examines Putin’s expectations that the Church promote patriotism, historical continuity, social stability, and loyalty to the Russian state.
Controlling Chaos: How Russia Manages Its Political War in Europe
| Mark Galeotti | European Council on Foreign Relations | September 1, 2017
Identifies the Russian Orthodox Church as one component of a wider network used by Moscow to exercise political and ideological influence abroad.
Orthodox Christianity in Putin’s Russia
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 10, 2017
Presents survey data showing the strong association between Orthodox identity, national belonging, social conservatism, and support for a powerful state.
The Orthodox Church and Domestic Violence Reform
| Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch | February 7, 2017
Discusses the decriminalization of some domestic abuse and the influence of traditional-family arguments promoted by conservative and religious actors.
The Pope and the Patriarch: Russia’s Search for the Right West
| Alexander Baunov | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | February 15, 2016
Examines the political meaning of the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill and Moscow’s outreach to Western religious conservatives.
Russian Ideology After Crimea
Describes the revival of a symbiotic church–state relationship in which the state receives religious legitimacy and the Church receives authority and resources.
Russia’s Orthodox Soft Power
| Nicolai N. Petro | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs | March 23, 2015
Explores how the Church influences Russian foreign policy by presenting Moscow as a defender of Orthodox Christians and traditional values.
Russia’s Return to Religion
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | February 10, 2014
Shows that Orthodox identification expanded dramatically after the Soviet collapse even though regular religious observance remained comparatively limited.
Russia’s Law Protecting Religious Feelings
| Global Legal Research Center | Library of Congress | July 2, 2013
Explains legislation adopted after the Pussy Riot case that introduced stronger criminal penalties for offending religious believers.
Russia’s Ban on “Gay Propaganda”
| Amnesty International | Amnesty International | June 11, 2013
Describes legislation reflecting the state’s alliance with religious conservatism and its suppression of activists challenging official moral policies.
Church Influence over Russian Education
| Claire Bigg | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | September 4, 2012
Examines the introduction of religious culture courses in public schools and debate over the Church’s growing role in state education.
Pussy Riot and the Cathedral Protest
| Masha Lipman | The New Yorker | August 20, 2012
Examines how a protest against Putin inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour exposed the political fusion of presidential and ecclesiastical authority.
The Trial of Pussy Riot
| Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch | August 17, 2012
Criticizes the prosecution of performers whose cathedral protest challenged the Church hierarchy’s endorsement of Putin’s rule.
Spring for the Patriarchs
| Alexander Baunov | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | January 27, 2011
Discusses Patriarch Kirill’s international travel and his emergence as an effective instrument of Russian influence in neighboring Orthodox countries.
Orthodox Chaplains and the Russian Armed Forces
| Conor Humphries | Reuters | September 17, 2009
Reports on the restoration of military chaplaincy and the expanding institutional presence of Orthodox clergy within Russia’s armed forces.
Gender, Family, and Moral Regulation
The Holy War on Reproductive Rights
| Amy Cannon | Post-Soviet Affairs | 2026
Analyzes the Russian Orthodox Church as an anti-abortion lobbying institution and evaluates its influence over state reproductive-health policy.
The Russian Orthodox Church and Its Fight Against Abortion
| Pål Kolstø | Religion, State & Society | 2023
Examines both cooperation and disagreement between Church and state leaders over abortion restrictions, demographic policy, and protection of unborn life.
Traditional Sexuality and Political Sovereignty
| Alexander Agadjanian | Politics and Religion | 2017
Explores how opposition to LGBTQ rights became a way for Church and state leaders to define Russia as morally sovereign from the West.
The Church and Russia’s Domestic-Violence Debate
| Anna Rivina | openDemocracy | 2017
Examines how Orthodox traditional-family arguments influenced opposition to stronger legal protections for survivors of domestic violence.
Orthodox Anti-Abortion Activism in Russia
| Michele Rivkin-Fish | PONARS Eurasia | 2017
Explores the political alliance between Orthodox activists and conservative officials seeking to reduce abortion access and reshape public morality.
The Church, Homosexuality, and Russian State Policy
| Alexander Kondakov | Religion, State & Society | 2014
Analyzes the interaction of Orthodox moral teaching and government campaigns restricting LGBTQ visibility and political advocacy.
The Russian Orthodox Church, Family, and Demographic Politics
| Sonja Luehrmann | Religion, State & Society | 2013
Studies the Church’s participation in campaigns promoting larger families, motherhood, traditional gender roles, and demographic recovery.
The Russian Orthodox Church and Human Rights
| Wallace Daniel and Christopher Marsh | Religion, State & Society | 2012
Examines Orthodox arguments that communal morality, religious tradition, and national sovereignty should sometimes take priority over individual rights.
Orthodox Christianity and the Politics of Gender
| Janet Elise Johnson | Religion, State & Society | 2012
Discusses how Orthodox discourse shapes state approaches to women’s social roles, family responsibility, reproductive policy, and national identity.
The Church’s Basic Teaching on Human Dignity, Freedom, and Rights
| Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church | Moscow Patriarchate | 2008
Presents the Church’s official alternative to liberal human-rights thought and links rights to moral duty, national tradition, and spiritual authority.
Church, Education, and Society
Military-Patriotic Education and Orthodoxy
PONARS Eurasia | Military Patriotism
Explores how religious institutions participate in patriotic education programs alongside government agencies.
The Church and Russian Law
The 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience
Library of Congress | Freedom of Conscience Law
Explains how the law distinguished traditional religions from newer religious movements, strengthening the Orthodox Church's institutional position.
Religion in the Russian Constitution
Constitute Project | Constitution of Russia
Examines constitutional provisions declaring Russia a secular state while allowing broad cooperation with traditional religious organizations.
Orthodoxy and Religious Registration
Examines how registration requirements have affected minority religious groups differently from the Moscow Patriarchate.
Extremism Laws and Religion
Reviews the application of extremism legislation to religious organizations and debates over unequal enforcement.
Religious Freedom and Unequal Citizenship
Russia: Freedom in the World 2026
| Freedom House | Freedom in the World | 2026
Reports that the Orthodox Church retains a privileged position and cooperates closely with the government on domestic and foreign-policy priorities.
Testimony on the Russian Orthodox Church and State Propaganda
| Vladyslav Havrylov | U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | 2025
Describes the Moscow Patriarchate as an instrument of Russian state propaganda, ideological control, military mobilization, and religious repression in occupied Ukraine.
Russian-Occupied Territories of Ukraine
| Freedom House | Freedom in the World | 2025
Reports that occupation authorities favor Moscow-affiliated Orthodox institutions while restricting or persecuting Ukrainian churches and other religious groups.
Russia: Freedom in the World 2025
| Freedom House | Freedom in the World | 2025
Documents government favoritism toward the Orthodox Church alongside prosecutions, surveillance, and restrictions directed against minority religious communities.
Russia: Freedom in the World 2024
| Freedom House | Freedom in the World | 2024
Examines how Russia’s religion laws privilege traditional faiths while extremism legislation is used to restrict independent and minority religious activity.
Eastern Donbas: Freedom in the World 2024
| Freedom House | Freedom in the World | 2024
Documents the privileged status of Russian Orthodox institutions in occupied Donbas and repression of Baptists, Greek Catholics, Muslims, and other communities.
Russia Religious-Freedom Backgrounder
| U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF | 2022
Reviews religious repression in Russia and Belarus and the geopolitical influence exercised through churches subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate.
Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate’s Soft Power
| John Herbst | U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | September 16, 2020
Explains how the Russian World concept connects Orthodoxy, language, culture, and loyalty to Putin’s government at home and abroad.
Negotiating the Limits of Religious Pluralism
| Emily B. Baran | U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | September 16, 2020
Describes Orthodox opposition to new religious movements and the development of laws that favored traditional religions while restricting minority faiths.
Russia Annual Report
| U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF | 2018
Characterizes the Moscow Patriarchate as a de facto state church benefiting from subsidies, access to public education, and military chaplaincies.
Russia’s Ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses
| Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch | April 20, 2017
Examines the Supreme Court’s designation of Jehovah’s Witnesses as extremist within a religious system that grants favored treatment to the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Russian Religion Law and Orthodox Privilege
| Library of Congress | Global Legal Monitor | July 8, 2016
Explains new restrictions on missionary activity that strengthened state control over religion and disproportionately burdened independent religious communities.
Russia’s Anti-Missionary Legislation
| Human Rights Watch | Human Rights Watch | July 7, 2016
Describes legislation limiting missionary work and religious expression while established Orthodox institutions maintained privileged access to government.
Preferential Status for the Moscow Patriarchate
| U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF | 2013
Documents special agreements between state agencies and the Orthodox Church involving education, prisons, spiritual counseling, property, and public funding.
State Support and Religious Inequality in Russia
| U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF | 2007
Reports that the Russian Orthodox Church received extensive government assistance and access to schools, military institutions, and law-enforcement bodies.
Property, Privilege, and Institutional Expansion
Russian State Companies and Orthodox Diplomacy
| Ksenia Luchenko | European Council on Foreign Relations | September 20, 2023
Details how state-connected corporations such as Rosatom and Russian Railways have supported Church projects that expand Russian influence abroad.
Sacrificing Art for War: The Handover of Russia’s Trinity Icon
| Ksenia Luchenko | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | May 24, 2023
Examines Putin’s transfer of Andrei Rublev’s fragile Trinity icon to the Church as a political gesture designed to reinforce wartime unity.
Putin Orders Rublev’s Trinity Icon Returned to the Church
| Reuters | Reuters | May 16, 2023
Reports on the state’s decision to transfer a priceless medieval icon from a museum to Church custody despite conservation concerns.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Expanding Role in Africa
| Fredrick Nzwili | Religion Unplugged | February 24, 2022
Explains how the Moscow Patriarchate established an African exarchate after African Orthodox leaders recognized an independent Ukrainian church.
Moscow’s Orthodox Exarchate in Africa
| Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | RFE/RL | January 3, 2022
Describes Moscow’s attempt to establish new African jurisdictions as part of its struggle for influence within global Orthodoxy.
The Church and the Yekaterinburg Park Protests
| Maria Tsvetkova | Reuters | May 17, 2019
Reports on successful protests against building a cathedral in a public park, revealing limits to public acceptance of Church expansion.
Russian Churches Abroad as Instruments of Influence
| Robert Coalson | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | March 2, 2018
Examines how parishes, foundations, cultural organizations, and religious diplomacy can extend Moscow’s influence among Russian-speaking communities abroad.
Protests over St. Isaac’s Cathedral
| Reuters | Reuters | January 31, 2017
Describes public opposition to the transfer of a major state museum to the Orthodox Church and broader concern about ecclesiastical privilege.
The Handover of St. Isaac’s Cathedral
| Shaun Walker | The Guardian | January 13, 2017
Reports on controversy surrounding the state’s proposed transfer of one of St. Petersburg’s most important museums to Church control.
The Church, the State, and the Solovki Monastery
| Ola Cichowlas | The Moscow Times | September 9, 2016
Discusses Church efforts to control historical interpretation, tourism, and cultural institutions at a monastery that also served as a Soviet prison camp.
The Church’s Growing Wealth and Political Influence
| Kathrin Hille | Financial Times | November 8, 2015
Examines the accumulation of property, political access, and institutional influence by the Russian Orthodox Church under Putin.
Russia’s Cathedral Building Boom
| Fred Weir | Christian Science Monitor | July 23, 2012
Examines the rapid construction of Orthodox churches and questions about government support, public land, and local opposition.
Putin Signs Law Returning Religious Property
| Global Legal Research Center | Library of Congress | December 2, 2010
Summarizes the law establishing procedures for transferring state-owned religious property back to religious organizations.
Russia Returns Monasteries and Churches
| Tom Balmforth | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | November 23, 2010
Examines disputes over the return of museums, historic buildings, and cultural objects to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Restitution of Property
| Gleb Bryanski | Reuters | November 22, 2010
Reports on legislation transferring large amounts of property confiscated during the Soviet era from the state to religious organizations, especially the Orthodox Church.
Putin and the Reconciliation with the Russian Church Abroad
| Andrew E. Kramer | The New York Times | May 18, 2007
Reports on the reunification of the Moscow Patriarchate with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, an achievement encouraged by Putin.
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Post-Soviet Power
| Michael Wines | The New York Times | August 20, 2000
Describes the reconstruction of Moscow’s principal cathedral as a symbol of religious revival, national restoration, and the new relationship between Church and state.
The Basis of the Social Concept: Church and State
| Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church | Moscow Patriarchate | 2000
Sets out the Church’s official teaching on cooperation with government, civil obedience, moral disagreement, and the formal distinction between ecclesiastical and state authority.
The Church’s Tobacco and Alcohol Import Privileges
| Carol J. Williams | Los Angeles Times | April 13, 1997
Investigates controversial tax and customs privileges that allowed Church-affiliated organizations to profit from imported tobacco and alcohol.
Rebuilding Moscow’s Cathedral
| Carol J. Williams | Los Angeles Times | January 7, 1997
Examines the political, financial, and symbolic importance of reconstructing the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour after Soviet rule.
The Church During War
The Church and the Crimean War
Explores religious support for Russian war aims and the use of Orthodoxy in maintaining morale during military defeat.
Religion During the Napoleonic Wars
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Napoleonic Wars
Describes how Church leaders framed Napoleon's invasion as both a military and spiritual struggle for Russia.
Religion and Victory Day
BBC News | Victory Day Coverage
Examines how Orthodox participation in Victory Day commemorations reinforces connections between military memory and state patriotism.
Orthodox Support for World War I
International Encyclopedia of the First World War | Russia
Reviews sermons, public ceremonies, and charitable efforts through which the Church encouraged support for the imperial war effort.
War, Militarism, and Sacred Authority
Russian Church Orders Prayer for Victory
| Associated Press | AP News | 2023
Examines mandatory prayers for Russian victory and the disciplinary measures imposed on clergy who altered or refused them.
Kirill’s Promise of Forgiveness for Russian Soldiers
| Reuters | Reuters | September 26, 2022
Reports on Kirill’s assertion that Russian soldiers who died while performing military duty could receive the washing away of their sins.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Unholy Role in Putin’s War
| Katherine Kelaidis | Foreign Policy | April 26, 2022
Argues that Church leaders transformed support for the state into theological endorsement of conquest and political violence.
Orthodox Churches Condemn Patriarch Kirill’s War Theology
| Harriet Sherwood | The Guardian | April 24, 2022
Examines international Orthodox opposition to Kirill and the possibility that his alliance with Putin could produce a lasting ecclesiastical schism.
Orthodox Christian Unity Broken by Russia’s War
| Lindsay Maizland | Council on Foreign Relations | April 14, 2022
Explains how the invasion intensified jurisdictional and political divisions among Orthodox churches in Ukraine, Russia, and the wider Orthodox world.
Putin’s Patriarch Is Leading His Church into Schism
| Peter Pomerantsev | Politico Europe | April 7, 2022
Describes resistance to Patriarch Kirill among clergy and Orthodox communities disturbed by his close identification with Putin’s war.
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Invasion of Ukraine
| Emily Harding | Center for Strategic and International Studies | April 2022
Examines the Church’s support for Kremlin war narratives and its importance in Russia’s domestic and international influence campaigns.
Putin’s Orthodox Christianity and the Ukraine War
| Paul D. Miller | The Atlantic | March 25, 2022
Examines the religious themes in Putin’s worldview and their relationship to Russian nationalism, imperial restoration, and the invasion of Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill, Putin’s War, and the Future of Orthodoxy
| Cyril Hovorun | Religion & Politics | March 15, 2022
Discusses the theological and institutional consequences of Kirill’s endorsement of the Russian government’s attack on Ukraine.
A Declaration on the “Russian World” Teaching
| Orthodox Christian Theologians | Public Orthodoxy | March 13, 2022
Condemns the ideology that treats Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Orthodoxy, and Russian political leadership as parts of a single sacred civilization.
Russian Orthodox Leader’s Support of Ukraine War Divides Faithful
| Jason Beaubien | NPR | March 10, 2022
Examines divisions among Orthodox Christians after Patriarch Kirill endorsed the Kremlin’s account of the invasion.
Russian Orthodox Church Leader Backs War Despite Christian Opposition
| Deutsche Welle | DW | March 10, 2022
Reviews Patriarch Kirill’s defense of the invasion and criticism from Christian leaders who rejected his religious justification for violence.
Patriarch Kirill’s Sermon on the War and Gay Pride Parades
| Reuters | Reuters | March 7, 2022
Reports on Kirill’s claim that the conflict represented a metaphysical struggle over Western liberalism and resistance to gay-pride culture.
Russian Clergy Appeal for an End to the War
| Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | March 3, 2022
Reports on Orthodox priests who publicly called for peace despite institutional pressure to support the Russian state.
The World Council of Churches and Russia’s War
| Reuters | Reuters | March 2, 2022
Reports on international Christian appeals urging Patriarch Kirill to use his influence with Putin to seek an end to the invasion.
Religious Soft Power in Russian Foreign Policy
| Robert C. Blitt | University of Tennessee College of Law | 2022
Examines the Kremlin’s growing reliance on the Moscow Patriarchate as an instrument of soft power and the constitutional foundations of their partnership.
Defender of the Faith? How Ukraine’s Orthodox Split Threatens Russia
| Andrew Wilson | European Council on Foreign Relations | May 30, 2019
Explains why losing Ukrainian parishes weakened the Moscow Patriarchate’s size, resources, historical narrative, and usefulness as a Russian soft-power institution.
A Religious War on the Horizon?
| European Council on Foreign Relations | ECFR | May 20, 2019
Presents a discussion of the political and security consequences of Ukraine’s establishment of an Orthodox Church independent of Moscow.
Russian Orthodox Church Breaks Communion with Constantinople
| BBC News | BBC | October 15, 2018
Explains Moscow’s decision to sever communion with Constantinople after the latter supported an independent Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Russia, Ukraine, and the Battle for Religion
| Andrew Wilson | European Council on Foreign Relations | October 11, 2018
Analyzes the geopolitical consequences of Ukrainian church independence and the Kremlin’s effort to preserve Moscow’s religious jurisdiction.
Foreign Policy and the Russian World
Church Support for Russian Foreign Policy
Examines arguments that the Russian Orthodox Church functions as an instrument of soft power supporting Russian diplomatic and geopolitical objectives.
Russian Orthodox Church and Ukraine
| Taras Kuzio | Cambridge University Press | 2024
Traces the Moscow Patriarchate’s historical involvement in Ukraine and its alliance with Russian imperial nationalism under Putin.
Pan-Russian World and Ukraine
| Taras Kuzio | Cambridge University Press | 2024
Explains how Russian World ideology denies the full separateness of Ukrainian identity and provides a civilizational basis for Russian territorial claims.
Justice at Home and Abroad
| Alicja Curanović | Religion, State & Society | 2024
Analyzes how Church leaders define political justice, sovereignty, international hierarchy, and Russia’s proper role in the global order.
The Conflict Smolders, 2015–2021
| Paul D’Anieri | Cambridge University Press | 2023
Describes how Ukrainian efforts to achieve ecclesiastical independence weakened an important instrument of Moscow’s religious and political influence.
Critical Analysis of the Moscow Patriarchate Vision on the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict
| Viorel Coman | Scottish Journal of Theology | 2023
Compares Moscow Patriarchate teachings with broader Orthodox social ethics and critiques its application of just-war arguments to Ukraine.
The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow’s Syrian Campaign
| Alicja Curanović | PONARS Eurasia | 2019
Explains how the Church portrayed Russia’s Syrian intervention as a defense of Christians and supplied the Kremlin with a civilizational justification for military action.
The Orthodox Church and Russian Nuclear Forces
| Dmitry Adamsky | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | 2019
Explains how Orthodox chaplains, blessings, saints, and religious doctrine became integrated into Russia’s strategic military institutions.
Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy
| Dmitry Adamsky | Stanford University Press | 2019
Investigates the alliance between the Orthodox Church and Russia’s nuclear-weapons establishment, including rituals that portray strategic forces as sacred defenders of the nation.
The Church and Russia’s Military-Patriotic Revival
| Julie Fedor | PONARS Eurasia | 2017
Examines the role of religious imagery, historical memory, schools, and youth organizations in the state’s campaign to normalize military patriotism.
Orthodox Networks and Russian Influence in Europe
| Gustav Gressel | European Council on Foreign Relations | 2016
Examines the use of Orthodox institutions and conservative religious networks to strengthen Russian political influence in European societies.
The Russian Orthodox Church in the European Arena
| Kristina Stoeckl | Religion, State & Society | 2014
Analyzes Church participation in European political institutions and its promotion of conservative positions on human rights, family, and religious freedom.
Religious Diplomacy and the Kremlin
| Alicja Curanović | Religion, State & Society | 2012
Explores how Russian officials use Orthodox leaders and institutions to pursue diplomatic objectives in the former Soviet region and beyond.
The Russian Orthodox Church and Military Security
| Dmitry Adamsky | Journal of Slavic Military Studies | 2010
Studies the Church’s growing institutional relationship with Russia’s armed forces and its contribution to military identity and patriotic education.
Black Sea Region Security and the Rising Role of Religion
| Alexander Bogomolov and Serhii Danylov | PONARS Eurasia | 2008
Examines Orthodox jurisdictional conflicts in Ukraine and Moldova and the security risks created when governments and religious institutions become closely intertwined.
The Moscow Patriarchate and Russian Foreign Policy
| Alicja Curanović | Religion, State & Society | 2007
Examines the Moscow Patriarchate’s relations with other Orthodox churches and the importance of ecclesiastical influence for Russian foreign policy.
International Orthodoxy
The Russian Orthodox Church in Central Asia
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Central Asia
Examines how Orthodox institutions have served Russian-speaking communities while maintaining close ties with Moscow.
The Orthodox Church in Belarus
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Belarus
Explores close cooperation between Belarusian political authorities and the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Moscow Patriarchate and the Orthodox Diaspora
OrthodoxWiki | Russian Orthodox Diaspora
Examines the global network of Moscow Patriarchate parishes and their importance for Russian cultural diplomacy.
Orthodox Missions in Alaska
National Park Service | Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska
Describes missionary activity in Russian America and its relationship to imperial expansion.
Political Ideas and Theology
Debates Over Church Independence
Kristina Stoeckl | Church and State versus Church and People | Cornell Scholarship Online | 2024
Explores tensions between hierarchical cooperation with the state and grassroots religious communities seeking greater independence from political influence.
Orthodox Social Teaching and Economic Justice
Moscow Patriarchate | Social Concept
Explores Church teaching on poverty, labor, economic responsibility, and the moral obligations of governments.
Comparative Perspectives
The Russian Model of Church-State Relations
JSTOR | Church-State Relations
Compares Russia's contemporary partnership model with Western traditions emphasizing institutional separation between religion and government.
Religion and Nationalism in Eastern Europe
Cambridge University Press | Nationalism and Religion
Examines similarities and differences between Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Greek experiences of church-state cooperation.
Orthodoxy and Democracy
Oxford Academic | Orthodox Christianity and Democracy
Explores scholarly debates about whether Orthodox political traditions are compatible with liberal democratic institutions.
Orthodox Churches and Modern Politics
Religion, State & Society | Religion, State & Society
Surveys the diverse political roles played by Orthodox churches across Europe and places the Russian experience within a broader comparative framework.
Church and State in Eastern Orthodoxy
Encyclopaedia Britannica | Eastern Orthodoxy
Compares relationships between Orthodox churches and governments across Eastern Europe and explains how the Russian model differs.
