Religious Resurgence in Post-communist Countries
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked a dramatic turning point for religion in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. For more than seventy years, communist regimes had enforced atheism as state policy, severely restricting or outright banning religious expression. Churches, mosques, and synagogues were closed or repurposed, clergy were persecuted, and religious education was suppressed. The official ideology portrayed religion as a relic of the past that would fade away in the march toward a secular socialist future. Yet when communism fell, the religious landscape transformed in ways that few had anticipated.
The most prominent example of this transformation was the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church. Once tightly controlled and marginalized by the Soviet state, it emerged as a powerful symbol of national identity and moral renewal in post-Soviet Russia. Churches that had been destroyed or neglected were rebuilt, seminaries reopened, and religious services became common once again. The church’s revival was not merely spiritual but also political and cultural. It aligned itself closely with the Russian state, promoting a vision of Orthodoxy as an essential component of Russian heritage and patriotism. This partnership strengthened the church’s social influence while providing the state with moral legitimacy and a sense of historical continuity after decades of ideological vacuum.
Similar patterns of religious resurgence appeared across other post-communist countries. In Ukraine, Orthodoxy reemerged alongside the rise of national identity and debates over church independence from Moscow. In Poland, where the Catholic Church had remained a quiet force of resistance during communist rule, it gained new prominence as a moral authority in the rebuilding of the nation. In the Balkans, religion often reasserted itself as an expression of ethnic and cultural identity, sometimes fueling nationalist conflicts in the 1990s. In Central Asia, Islam reawakened after years of suppression, taking diverse forms from moderate expressions of faith to movements seeking broader social influence.
This revival was not only institutional but deeply personal. Millions of people who had grown up in an officially atheist society began to explore questions of faith and meaning. Religious education expanded, pilgrimages resumed, and traditional rituals returned to public life. The resurgence also reflected a wider spiritual hunger in societies disoriented by rapid political and economic change. For many, religion offered a moral anchor and a sense of belonging amid the uncertainty of the post-communist transition.
At the same time, this revival carried complexities. The reemergence of religion sometimes intertwined with nationalism and political power, raising questions about freedom of belief and the separation of church and state. In Russia and other countries, minority religions and new religious movements often faced restrictions, as dominant faiths sought to protect their privileged positions.
Overall, the post-communist religious resurgence demonstrated both the enduring power of faith and the deep human desire for meaning beyond material systems. What had been driven underground for generations did not disappear but rather reemerged with renewed vigor, reshaping societies once again around the sacred traditions that had survived in the hearts of their people.