Religion In Russia
The majority of Russian and Eastern European women who list their profile on Russian dating sites call themselves Christians, but what do they mean by that? Are they religious? Are they spiritual? Will they have a problem accepting your faith (or the lack of it)?
If you are familiar with Russian history you probably know that for seventy years (since Word War II) the official religion in Russia was atheism. Believers were persecuted, churches were destroyed. A number of people secretly believed in God, but since it was pretty dangerous they didn’t announce it and didn’t really practice their faith.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, religion wasn’t persecuted anymore, so people started coming back to it. According to different statistics, right now roughly 60-65% of Russians are Russian Orthodox, 15-16% call themselves atheists and the rest are Western Christians (Protestants, Catholics), Muslims, Jewish or Buddhists. I haven’t found statistics on religion in Eastern European countries, but from my experience the situation in Ukraine and Belarus is similar to what it is in Russia.
Even though the majority of people call themselves Orthodox and are baptized into Russian Orthodox faith, they don’t really practice it. Many people either don’t go to church at all or go to church only on Christmas and Easter (to bless the food). They don’t fast, don’t tithe, and don’t live by the rules of the Church. The majority of them believe in God “in soul” as they like to say, meaning that they know that God exists, they possibly pray to him occasionally and try to be good people to please Him.
Russian Orthodox religion is pretty hardcore (very strict), but the percentage of people who really practice it and obey all of the church rules is very small (5-7%). Besides, it is very unlikely that a Russian Orthodox woman who takes her religion seriously will search for husband abroad. Most of these women look for spouses within their church and faith, or rather wait for husbands to find them.
If you are marrying or married a woman who calls herself Russian Orthodox, but doesn’t really practice it (doesn’t go to church every Sunday, doesn’t do communion, doesn’t fast), she will have no problems accepting your faith (especially if you are a Christian) or even your lack of faith. I looked at thousands of profiles of Russian women and very few times I saw that women were looking specifically for Christian husbands. Religion in Russia is still pretty fragile and most people know very little about other religions as well as about their own. I have a friend who calls herself Russian Orthodox, but she doesn’t know whether or not Orthodox worship Mary and why Russian Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. She also didn’t know that Orthodoxy was not the only Christian religion and was shocked when I told her that Protestants and Catholics also believe in Christ as a savior.
So if religion is important to you and you are specifically looking for a Christian spouse, don’t assume that if she said she was Christian, she believes everything that you do. If you are Catholic and want her to become Catholic, I suggest you discuss it prior to bringing her to this country. If religion is not important to you and she doesn’t ask you about it, then probably it is irrelevant to her what kind of beliefs you have, so this is not going to be an issue.
