What are the reasons for the increasing popular interest in Russia in religiosity?

Moscow- In Russia, the proportion of citizens who play religion is increasing in their lives, as well as a survey conducted by the Levada Studies Center in Russia.

According to the results of the study, most often religion plays an important role in women’s lives (58%), respondents between the ages of 40 and 54 years (56%) and Muslims 83%.

In its data, the center indicated that religion plays a less important role for men (45%) and youth under the age of 24 by (43%) and those who do not belong to any religion (10%).

He concluded that for the first time in 12 years, the number of the Russians who realized the importance of religion in their lives becomes greater compared to those who adopted the opposite situation, as the share of these people decreased from 2017 to 2020 to reach 65%, but it started to rise gradually since then.

These results are almost corresponding to the conclusion of the “Opinion and Measurements” center in a recent investigation on the Telegram platform, in which he said that only one year ago, the first share was 40%, while the second share reached 59%.

The Lavada poll included 1603 people over the age of 18 years of more than 137 from the region and from 50 Russian regions, through personal interviews with the respondents.

The Levada Center is a non -governmental research organization and is considered the largest independent survey in Russia, and it conducts its own social and marketing research, and is one of the largest organizations in its field in the country.

Experts believe that “return” to religion is due to many factors. It is known that in the 1990s there was a feverish research on an alternative to the Communist ideology in which the former Soviet Union countries lived for more than 70 years.

At that time, the prevailing opinion was that the multi -national and religions could not exist without some kind of ideology, which led by the middle of the first decade of the 21st century to form an opinion that calls for the replacement of the ideology missing with Orthodoxy.

Existential questions

He says Sociologist Vladimir Kushil – Al-Jazeera Net- The results of the polls indicate that a shift in positions towards religion in society and its increasing role in the life of the Russians.

The expert explains that religion gives people a meaning to existence and answers the questions related to life and constitutes a view of the world, people and social problems, and with his help, man develops a system of values ​​and an organized and understandable idea of ​​the world.

But he points out that this is not limited and is not measured only by increasing the presence of believers, whether in churches or mosques, because “demand” for religion can be achieved outside religious institutions – for example – through individual spiritual practices, as he put it.

It indicates that until now, Russia is still a lack of knowledge about the role of religion in the life of man and society, and it is still unclear to what extent that the “return” of religion has stimulated to increase the demand for knowledge of it, because this phenomenon is still in its initial stages.

In his opinion, this is due to the relative weakness of the presence of religion in education and cultural and educational practices, and that the influence on public opinion is almost exclusively for religious institutions, places of worship, the web and means of communication, more than it is methodology at the official level.

Islamic presence

Parallel to talking about the increase in citizens ’interest in religion, it is also necessary to indicate the increase in the purchase of religious books.

It is noteworthy that the books that talk about Islam have become the most popular among all the religious literature sold in Russia.

In the first half of 2024, the demand for it increased by 77%. A report issued by the Russian Analysis Company “Litris” also confirms on the results of the analysis of religious literary sales.

And the most popular books in this category as follows:

• “Islamic Psychology: Self -Administration of the individual” by author Mohamed Jameedoliev.
• “The path of Islam: from the Prophet to the European Caliphate” by Alexander Musiakin.
• “The open imams and the state in Russia (the eighteenth and twenty -first centuries) of Bikin.
• “The Islamic Science: The Self -Judgment of the individual” (Part Two) of Muhammad Jameedoliev.

The number of sales of books for Orthodoxy, but not to the same extent, increased by about 30%.

And the leading books are:

• “Motherhood notes” by Anna Sabrikina.
• “Fasting: Fasting: Readings every day of the Great Fasting.”
• “In the third place: the book of crowns of love” for Bishop Vladimir Khullab.

And not only Russian book sellers are the ones who notice the increasing interest on the part of the citizens of religious books, but also the view of historians and some study centers.

The effect of conflicts and wars

According to Artemium Bitchkov, a researcher at the Institute of Civil Society Studies and the non -commercial sector, this trend was particularly affected by the recent Palestinian -Israeli conflict that broke out in October of the year before last.

In a comment to Al -Jazeera Net, he indicates that sales of books related to Islam and the Middle East in libraries also witnessed a 30%increase, and in electronic libraries the increase was about 9 times, adding that this process reached its climax today.

The researcher explains the shift towards religious culture in general in Russian society in all its spectrums of what he calls “great social unrest” such as the military process of Ukraine, the tense global situation and in the country, and the state of uncertainty about the future and fear for the family, which are things that push more people – according to his opinion – to resort to religion.