In the 10th century Prince Vladimir I, who was converted by missionaries from Byzantium, adopted Christianity as the official religion for Russia, and for nearly 1,000 years thereafter the Russian Orthodox church was the country’s dominant religious institution. Although there is some degree of correlation between language and religion, the two do not correspond entirely. As soon as the Communist era began in 1917, the Soviet government made it its job to eradicate religion in the Soviet Union. The aforementioned religious groups have minimal influence in Russia. However, like Orthodoxy, Islam was suppressed during the Soviet Union, and many mosques were closed down during this time. In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, the more open environment of the Perestroika encouraged the opening of many Sunday schools and a general resurgence of interest in Orthodox Christianity. Over 70% of Russians consider themselves to be Orthodox Christians, and the number is growing. They agreed, providing that he is baptized beforehand, which he agreed to. A small amount of the population of Russia adheres to the Catholic Church. However, these beliefs have a combined following that represents only 1% of the population. Russia adopted Christianity under Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988, in a ceremony patterned on Byzantine rites. Slavs are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian. Sergius monastery, the centre of Russian Orthodoxy, in Sergiyev Posad, Russia, north of Moscow. St. Petersburg (the tsarist capital) stands alone as the northernmost metropolis, whereas Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod are part of the large urbanized central industrial region, which has a score of large cities, numerous smaller towns, and an urban population that constitutes about one-fifth of Russia’s total. Russias baptism laid the foundations for the rise of the Russian Orthodox Church. The other faiths followed in Russia include Pagan beliefs, Slavic Folk Religion, and/or Central Asia Shamanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Taoism.

Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. They saw the forest as a border between this world and the Underworld, which is reflected in many folktales where the hero has to cross the forest in order to achieve their goal. Judaism had a similar fate as Christianity in the Soviet Union, with the added persecution and discrimination, especially during Stalin. In the last decades of the 20th century, the rural population fell by some one-fourth in the European section, though it grew in what is now the Southern federal district. Churches were demolished or turned into social clubs, the clergy was shot or sent to camps, and it became forbidden to teach religion to one's own children. In the early 21st century, for example, roughly one-sixth of the population of Russia was below age 15, while the proportion of those age 60 and above topped one-fifth.

Catholics, both Western rite (Roman) and Eastern rite (Uniate), and Lutherans were numerous in the former Soviet Union but lived mainly outside present-day Russia, where there are few adherents. Paganism has also become popular again, after centuries of repression. Although ethnic differences in Russia have long contained a religious element, the position of religious organizations and of their individual adherents has varied with political circumstances. Christian cartoons were being shown on main TV channels, and new churches were built or old ones restored. Today, atheist beliefs prevail in Russia to an extent, with around 13% of the country identifying as such. In 988, during a military campaign in Byzantine, Vladimir demanded to marry Anna, sister of Byzantine emperors. During the 1990s Russia began experiencing a negative population growth rate. Street scene in Khabarovsk, a major transportation hub in the Russian Far East. Jews long suffered discrimination in Russia, including purges in the 19th century, repression under the regime of Joseph Stalin, and Nazi atrocities on Russian soil during World War II. Other than Orthodox Christianity, the other Christian beliefs practiced in Russia include: Protestant Christians, Jehovah’s Witness, the Old Believers, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. Atheism came into vogue in Russia during the Soviet era, as it was regarded to be communism-appropriate. Major cities also occur at widely separated points along the length of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, including, from west to east, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok. Some four-fifths of the country’s population live in the main settled belt of European Russia, extending between St. Petersburg (northwestern Russia), Kemerovo (Siberia), Orsk (southern Urals), and Krasnodar (northern Caucasus). Resort towns are a feature of the North Caucasus region, including Sochi (on the Black Sea), Pyatigorsk, and Mineralnye Vody. Thousands of Buddhist monks were killed during the Soviet Union, too. The subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union made religious freedom a reality and revealed that large sections of the population had continued to practice a variety of faiths. This is reflected even now in the highly superstitious, ritual-loving Russian character. For example, groups not meeting this requirement at the time the law was implemented (such as Roman Catholics and Mormons) were unable to operate educational institutions or disseminate religious literature. Population densities in the rural areas in this section range from 25 to 250 persons per square mile, with the higher concentrations occurring in the wooded steppe. Buddhism is common among the Mongolian-speaking Buryat and Kalmyk. Other Christian denominations are much smaller and include the Old Believers, who separated from the Russian Orthodox church in the 17th century, and Baptist and Evangelical groups, which grew somewhat in membership during the 20th century. In the second half of the 20th century, rural depopulation was a pronounced characteristic, occurring faster in the European section. Indeed, Russian nationalists who emerged beginning in the 1990s identified the Russian Orthodox church as a major element of Russian culture. Around 10% of the population of Russia identifies as Muslim. Vladimir himself was an ardent pagan who erected wooden statues of deities, had five wives and around 800 concubines, and had a reputation of a bloodthirsty warrior. There have also been more restrictive laws adopted in some Russian regions, which means that the situation with the freedom of religious expression varies across Russia. Today, Christianity in Russia has experienced somewhat of an upsurge, a trend that began after the fall of the Soviet Union. Over 70% of Russians consider themselves to be Russian Orthodox Christians.

The reign of Peter I (the Great; 1689–1725), The reign of Catherine II (the Great; 1762–96), Government administration under Catherine, Education and social change in the 18th century, The Civil War and War Communism (1918–21), The Gorbachev era: perestroika and glasnost, Ethnic relations and Russia’s “near-abroad”, Consolidation of power, Syria, and campaign against the West. Russia has experienced a revival of religion since the start of the new millennium. This has meant that some religions, for example, Jehovah's Witnesses, are banned in Russia, while others, such as some Protestant churches or the Catholic Church, have considerable problems with registration, or limitations on their rights within the country. Orthodox Christianity in Russia can be traced back to at least the year 988 when it was introduced in Russia under the governance of Prince Vladimir of Kiev. In the Ural Mountains region, the towns are more widely spaced and include numerous small mining and industrial centres as well as a number of towns with more than 250,000 inhabitants, which altogether amount to an urban population about half that of the Moscow region. During WWII, the Church experienced a short revival as Stalin looked for ways to increase the patriotic mood, but that quickly ended after the war. Organized religion was repressed by Soviet authorities for most of the 20th century, and the nonreligious still constitute more than one-fourth of the population.

In 1997, a new law On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations was passed, which acknowledged Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism as traditional religions in Russia. European Russia also includes a portion of the Donets Basin (Donbass) industrial zone, arbitrarily split by the Russia-Ukraine boundary; this area’s largest city is Rostov-na-Donu, but there are numerous smaller centres. Although religious activity was highly intertwined within Russian society throughout many centuries, the influence of the Russi… The main target of the anti-religion campaign was the Russian Orthodox Church, as it had the most followers. Those who identified their religious beliefs as "non-affiliated" include Russians who consider themselves to be agnostic or just generally irreligious. In the 10th century Prince Vladimir I, who was converted by missionaries from Byzantium, adopted Christianity as the official religion for Russia, and for nearly 1,000 years thereafter the Russian Orthodox church was … The bulk of the rural population lives in large villages associated with the collective and state farms (kolkhozy and sovkhozy, respectively) established by the former Soviet regime. Islam was introduced to Russia through Dagestan around the mid-7th century. Most of the information about the Slavic religion comes from the records made by Christians who brought Christianity to Russia, as well as from Russian folklore, but there is still a lot that we don't know about the early Slav paganism. There are also 25 million Muslims, around 1.5 million Buddhists, and over 179,000 Jewish people. Atheism and Agnosticism do not have any overt role in the matters of the nation. There are over 5,000 registered Muslim communities in Russia. The dislike of the clergy among the peasants can be seen in Russian folktales and mythology (byliny). Early Slavs were pagans and had a multitude of deities. During the lengthy era of the Soviet Union, atheism was the widespread practice. Interestingly, the population of those who follow Russian Orthodoxy are predicted to shrink in population, from around 100 million today to 88 million in 2050. In Soviet Russia, all religion was banned. Muslims constitute Russia’s second largest religious group. Individual farms started to reappear in the post-Soviet years. The only slightly less-populous Volga region has towns strung out along the riverbanks, with a particularly dense concentration in the vicinity of Samara. Cathedral of St. Declines in life expectancy were more pronounced among men and resulted in a growing gap between the number of men and women in the country.