Moscow

Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation and the largest multicultural mega-city of eastern Europe. Its present population is estimated to be more than 10 million. The majority of Moscow's population is nominally Russian Orthodox, though a significant number of Moscovites follow Islam. Other religions of its inhabitants include Judaism, Roman Catholic Christianity, various forms of Protestantism (the Lutheran tradition, Methodism, Baptism, Pentecostalism), Buddhism, Neo-Paganism, and the Hare Krishna movement. As in Russia in general, nearly half of Moscow's nominal Christian population make only occasional visits to religious sites and exercise religious rituals. Yet Moscow is Russia's biggest religious center with about 500 religious organizations, 532 registered Russian Orthodox churches, 10 monasteries, 6 mosques, 5 synagogues, a Buddhist temple, a Sikh temple, a Hare Krishna assembly hall, and others. It is popularly known in Russia as “the city of the forty of forties” of churches and “the Third Rome.” Its cultural landscape is still dominated by the Russian Orthodox churches and monasteries, of which the most famous are Our Saviour (Khrista Spasitelya [Figure 1]), Novodevichiy Convent, St. Basil's Church, and the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin.

Figure 1 Cathedral of Christ Our Saviour in Moscow

The first reference to Moscow as the place in the Duchy of Rostov is in 1147. In 1327, Moscow [Page 830]became the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. After 1480, Moscow was the capital of an independent state that started to unite other Russian lands under its control. Since the 16th century, Moscow Christians have been independent from the Constantinople Patriarchate, and the Orthodoxy has enjoyed the status of a state religion. In the 17th century, however, the state-sanctioned attempts by Patriarch Nikon to modify the Christian liturgy led to the Church Schism and open social unrest and the emergence of the Old Believers communities. In 1712, the capital of Russia was moved to St. Petersburg, which was proclaimed the center of the Russian Empire. The position of the Patriarch was abolished, and the Synod or the Ministry in charge of the Russian Christian Church was established in 1721 in the rival city of St. Petersburg. The Patriarchate was terminated. The February 1917 coup d’état ended with the establishment of the monarchy, and the October 1917 revolution ended the period of domination of Russian Christianity in the country. At the same time, the Moscow Patriarchate was revived. In 1918, the Bolsheviks returned the Russian capital to Moscow. In 1924, it became the capital of the Soviet Union. In 1992, it remained the capital of the Russian Federation, the successor state of the Soviet Union.

The multinational and multiconfessional composition of Russia's population does not allow the choice of Orthodox Christianity as the only ideology of the Russian state. Thus, the Russian Federation was proclaimed a secular state. Yet the state supports four main churches as traditional or historical religions: Russian Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, in opposition to other churches, particularly new Protestant churches and new religious movements of a neo-Hinduism type and neo-Pagan cults. Moscow is the headquarters of the Inter-Confessional Council of religions.

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