In 1976, shortly after leaving the Soviet Union with his wife and daughter, the Leningrad native and Dostoevsky scholar Evgenii Aleksandrovich Vagin reflected on Russia's past and its possible future. He emphasised the central role that he believed the provinces would play. ‘Unquestionably’, he said, ‘the future of Russia depends a great deal on the extent to which the provinces will awaken, the extent to which all the processes of democratisation and spiritual rebirth will touch their depths.’Footnote ¹

Vagin's belief in the significance of Russia's provinces is not uncommon. The nineteenth-century historian Nikolai Chechulin expressed a similar view in his classic work Russian provincial society in the second half of the eighteenth century. Chechulin wrote that the towns and villages of provincial Russia held a vast storehouse of cultural wealth; from them, he noted, came many of Russia's most creative individuals. Bringing their talents to the cities, they had infused literature, the arts and the sciences with fresh, often revolutionary, ideas.Footnote ² In the early 1990s the great historian of medieval Russia, Dmitrii Likhachev, proposed that the country's top priority should be the reconstruction of cultural and social life in the provinces. ‘We should remember’, he wrote, ‘that the majority of the talent, the geniuses of our cultural heritage, were born and received their early education not in Petersburg, Moscow, or Kiev. These cities only brought together the most enlightened members of our society. But, I repeat, most of the geniuses in our culture were born in the provinces.’Footnote ³ The rebirth of cultural life, Likhachev believed, had to begin with ‘focusing on the small’, rather than on the large, on making Russia's provincial towns and villages more attractive places to live.

Committed to developing its industrial strength, the Soviet Union, for most of its history, moved in the opposite direction. In the two decades before the 1917 Russian Revolution, the industrial base of the country significantly expanded under the direction of Russia's able minister of finance and later prime minister, Count Sergei Witte. After coming to power, the Bolsheviks greatly enlarged the scope of his industrial aspirations, especially under Joseph Stalin and his Five-Year Plans, his collectivisation of agriculture, and the emphasis on steel and iron production. Russia's major cities became the central focus of this economic drive. Moscow's population grew from 1.027 million in 1920 to 8.980 million in 1990. A large part of this growth took place between 1965 and 1990 (6.427 to 8.980 million); more than 80 per cent of it came from migrations from the towns and villages of central Russia.Footnote ⁴ Consumer goods and food products flowed in a similar direction. A re-written Russian proverb might read, ‘Moscow became fat, while the countryside became thin.’

After the fall of the Soviet government in 1991, it remained unclear whether similar trends would continue or whether more traditional social and cultural forms would reassert themselves. With the country in turmoil and facing an uncertain future, would the centralised governing apparatus retain its dominance or would provincial Russia experience a rebirth? And if the latter, what forms would that rebirth take?  Since Russian Orthodoxy and other religious beliefs traditionally had a strong influence in the Russian countryside, an influence that the Bolshevik government had sought unsuccessfully to destroy, a significant part of this question involved religion. It is those issues that the pioneering work of the sociologist of religion Sergei Borisovich Filatov and his research team attempt to address.

Filatov spent the early years of his academic career serving in the Institute for USA and Canadian Studies in the Russian Academy of Sciences. His work largely focused on religion and society in the United States, and he was the author of several significant studies on that subject. But, at the end of the 1980s, he changed course. He and his mentor, Dmitrii Efimovich Furman, the distinguished Russian sociologist of religion, reoriented themselves to the study of their own country, when, during President Gorbachev's perestroika, the opportunities for original research opened up. But this re-direction did not come easily. ‘To my dismay’, he said, ‘I discovered that the published sources required for serious work on religious practices and beliefs in Russia did not exist. I needed to discover and collect the information myself.’Footnote ⁵

The encyclopaedic study that Filatov and his team have accomplished is unparalleled in Russia in the last century. At no time earlier had such a gifted group of sociologists attempted such a detailed examination of Russia's vast countryside as a whole, looking at patterns of religious belief and their evolution since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Beginning their work in 1994, Filatov and his crew, in 1998, were offered support by the Keston Institute in Great Britain. Keston's founder and director, Canon Michael Bourdeaux, had been for many years a strong advocate for the study of religion and a staunch defender of religious liberty in the former Soviet Union. Joined on occasion by Russian-speaking English scholars, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Russian researchers traversed the country multiple times, travelling thousands of kilometres, and holding discussions with more than 3,000 bishops, priests, church activists and government officials in their quest to map out the distinctiveness of religious life and the fundamental ideological tendencies in every region of Russia. The result is an invaluable, groundbreaking study, ranging across the entire gamut of religious belief, from Orthodoxy to paganism, in provincial Russia.

The first four volumes in this multi-volume series, published between 2003 and 2006, deal with the first decade of post-Soviet Russia. They were followed by a three-volume Atlas, which covers the second decade. If the first four volumes were concerned with identifying and describing each religious confession, the subsequent Atlas had a different focus: it is organised by geographical region. The reader sees clearly the large influence of the distant past as the Soviet state receded from dominance: in the area around Moscow, a tightly controlled and autocratic Orthodox Church, closely allied with the Russian government, reasserted itself. In the north-west, particularly in the area around Novgorod, with its long traditions of independence and cultural autonomy, much more open and free forms of religious beliefs re-emerged. Filatov's study disputes the common view that religious activity has little importance in the social and cultural landscape of provincial Russia. He dispels the contention that a religious and ideological vacuum opened up after the end of the Soviet regime. Religious organisations returned with a vengeance throughout Russia, sprouting up in large numbers and in great diversity, many of them with small numbers of members, uncoordinated and widely different in their ideological orientation and their social and political activities. They represented what one local priest called, the ‘first green shoots of new growth’. In many regions (for example, Ivanovo, Iaroslavl’, Irkutsk and Orel), Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant organisations helped to rebuild social life, reconstructing services of compassion for the needy, holding concerts, organising sports clubs and engaging in philanthropy. The picture that Filatov and his colleagues paint is not one of provincial lethargy and hopelessness, but, in many locations, the slow but steady reconstruction of provincial institutions and activities that, during the Soviet era, had been neglected.

In 2014, recognising that many segments of the first volumes in the series and the Atlas had become outdated in a rapidly moving social and political environment, Filatov and his team of researchers fundamentally altered the goals of their investigations. The third and present series is very different from the earlier volumes. In recent years, much additional information has become available, including valuable internet sources. But, most important, significant changes have taken place within provincial Russia, and Filatov wanted to capture them. The present volumes retain the Atlas's focus on individual regions, but greatly expand the analytical sections. Filatov and his team are returning to each of the regions and holding much longer discussions with bishops, priests, religious activists and government officials. As a result, Filatov and his associates present a picture that is more in-depth than before, showing clearly changes in the last two decades, the trends that will help to shape the future.

By the autumn of 2016, Filatov's current team (Roman Lunkin and the Keston Institute's current director Xenia Dennen) had completed two of a projected seven-volume series. Organised alphabetically, these first two volumes explore twenty-eight regions, from the Republic of Adygeia in southern Russia to the Krasnoiarsk district (krai) in central Siberia. Even more than before, the reader sees both the richness and diversity of religious life in these provincial societies. Both themes are particularly evident in three disparate parts of the country: Adygeia, situated in the northern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, a region known for its natural gas and oil and its sheep breeding; Ivanovo province, located to the north-east of Moscow, the historic centre of Russia's textile industry, whose workers played a major role in the Russian Revolution; and Vladimir province, in central Russia, east of Moscow, closely connected to the history of Moscow and a traditional bastion of Russian Orthodoxy.

In each of these regions, in the last decade, the former rapid emergence of disorganised religious groups has ended. Religious groups have consolidated, become much better organised, and strengthened themselves both economically and socially. This consolidation has especially taken place among Protestants, but, as Filatov notes, similar processes have occurred among Muslims, Old Believers and Buddhists. Everywhere, the emergence of new religious movements has sharply declined. In the 1990s and early 2000s religious groups primarily focused their attention internally; they rarely reached out beyond the walls of their own sanctuaries. In the last decade they have greatly expanded their educational, cultural and social projects, becoming agencies of compassion and philanthropy. Such activities are pronounced among Protestants and Catholics, whose work these volumes describe excellently. The Russian Orthodox Church has also become a serious player in all of these fields. If these trends continue over the next fifteen to twenty years, Filatov contends, they will reshape the social and political life of the country. The Orthodox Church will also become a sphere of internal conflict and debate on moral and social questions.

The most recent volumes are especially important for their enhanced focus on the politics of religion. It is a widely held view that church officials adopted a subservient attitude to the government. In the three regions, the interactions between government and church officials are multi-faceted and complex, and they have raised internal debates, especially within the Russian Orthodox Church about political issues. As Filatov's study admirably shows, government leaders at the top of the regional administration have sought a balance between different religious organisations; they have held seminars, involved representatives of various religious groups in charity projects, and invited them to discussions of social problems. The most serious conflicts have taken place between individual Russian Orthodox priests or local officials and Protestants, Catholics and Muslims. For example, in Ivanovo province, where Mikhail Men’ served as governor-general from 2008 to 2015, he made a determined effort to develop a tolerant religious environment. As Filatov's study shows, Men’ stepped in on several occasions and resolved local conflicts: he came to the defence of Protestants who had come under attack from local government officials.Footnote ⁶ By providing such details for all the regions, Filatov and his group alter the picture of political and religious life in Russia's provinces. They show the relationship between politics and religion to be more fluid, more dynamic, less predictable, and also less dependent on commands from Moscow than has been supposed.

While the three regions have commonalities, the reemergence of religious institutions and practices are also widely disparate. It is one of the most valuable findings of Filatov's studies that these differences are brought into full view. In the last decade, each of the regions has experienced significant changes in development, internal relationships and ideological conflicts. In the northern Caucasus, the Republic of Adygeia, in the 1930s, had experienced the closure of all mosques and the near total destruction of the Muslim priesthood. The last decade has seen a rebirth of Muslim traditions and consciousness, as well as a nationalistic revival that has produced hostility towards Protestant groups, who are very active in the republic; this revival of nationalism has also generated passionate rhetoric about Russian imperialism. In the north-east, the city of Ivanovo and its diocese historically have lacked strong Orthodox traditions, but the region has been part of a remarkable spiritual regrowth. This is displayed not only in the physical reconstruction of churches but, perhaps most importantly, in the attempt to develop a relatively ‘open’ and tolerant atmosphere. The Orthodox Church holds seminars to which members of the intelligentsia are invited, and convenes annual conferences that feature both church officials and secular experts. Such initiatives have also led to conflict with some local priests, who have a very different view of how the Church ought to conduct itself.

In contrast to Ivanovo, in the city of Vladimir and its diocese, which many Russian historians view as the ‘spiritual centre of early Russia’, the main theme has been the rebuilding of monastic traditions. The Communist government had ‘rained down’ on monastic life in Vladimir province. In the last decade, however, a large number of the monasteries have been rebuilt, and monastic life has been reinvigorated, including its educational functions, outreach to the poor and the care of orphaned children. Yet conflict is also part of Vladimir province's story. Filatov describes a local monastery, the famous Bogoliubskii woman's monastery, in the same diocese and near the city of Suzdal’, which has wealthy sponsors and has been magnificently reconstructed. The father confessor of the monastery, Archimandrite Petr (Kucher), is ‘distinguished by his fanatical monasticism’, his extreme nationalist views and his admiration for Joseph Stalin. Archimandrite Petr has surrounded himself with a core group of fundamentalists, who have entrenched themselves in the monastery. Their existence has created a dilemma for the bishop of the diocese, who tolerates them, but resents their presence. Filatov's pages on these subjects make for fascinating reading. He does not take sides, but the volumes that he and his team are writing reveal the religious and social struggles that are significant parts of Russia's present.

Each of the three republics responded to different circumstances. Their experiences lead to one of the main arguments of Filatov's most recent volumes: leadership matters. All three regions had visionary leaders – barely recognised in the Western world – who significantly influenced the social and religious framework in which they operated. In Adygeia, Hazret Sovmen served as president from 2002 to 2007. A substantial businessman, who made a fortune in Siberian gold-mining, Sovmen, after becoming president, reached out to both the Islamic and Russian Orthodox communities. He used his personal funds to support the building of an Orthodox Church; he initiated policies that gave financial help to Islamic organisations; he expressed admiration for the Baptists’ work ethic and integrity, calling them the ‘very best workers’ he had in his Siberian enterprises. His policies set a tone of religious tolerance, which his political successors have followed.

In Ivanovo, Archbishop Amvrosii (Shchurov) (1977–2006) supported the independent activities of the priesthood in his diocese. Although a strong Russian nationalist, he promoted the emergence of a free atmosphere, accepted priests who were denied positions in other dioceses and, through his educational policies, cultivated close relationships with the intelligentsia. He created an intellectual atmosphere in Ivanovo that persisted long after his retirement. In Vladimir, Bishop Innokentii (Iakovlev) (2011–) has been an outspoken critic of what he has called ‘the obscurantism of the nationalists and renovationists’. He has also been critical of the relationship between the Church and the government: ‘To manage entirely without the government's help is impossible, but each time, it is essential to think, perhaps we can do this without the government.’

Filatov's encyclopaedic work provides insights into the experiences of other provinces. Especially noteworthy are the regions of Kaliningrad province (Kaliningradskaia oblast’), formerly in East Prussia, where only in 1985, thirty-eight years after its incorporation in Russia, did the Orthodox Church begin its activities; the Republic of Kalmykiia, on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, with its large Buddhist population that lives side-by-side with Orthodox and Catholic faiths; the Republic of Kabardino-Balkariia, in the North Caucasus, where the predominant Islamic faith and both Orthodox and Catholic minorities engage actively in social service and exhibit compassion for the needy: and the Republic of Kareliia, in northern Russia, where the Scandinavian countries have played a large role in religious life, but where, during Soviet times, the governing authorities destroyed all church literature in the Kareliian language, and where present struggles are focused little on religion and mostly on preserving the language and on strengthening traditional culture.

While the work of Filatov and his team covers a lot of ground, it sharpens our view of Russia. Their books draw on a large assortment of primary, first-hand sources to provide a unique portrait of Russia's provincial life – its struggles and opportunities – at a level we have all too rarely had, either during the Soviet period or the post-Communist era. He and his colleagues offer an intimate picture of a country still in transformation and where Russia's future may well be determined. Filatov and his team have given us only the first two volumes in this latest series: the ones to follow promise to show even more of the commonalities and differences among the various regions of that vast country. What kinds of leadership within religious organisations and in provincial government will develop? How will the growing diversity of religious organisations affect the evolution of Russia's identity and sense of being in a globalised world? One anxiously awaits these future volumes. They are essential sources for scholars and other observers of Russia's politics, society and religion.