The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Socio-Cultural Space of Modern Russia

The article discusses the contradictory approaches to the role assessment of the ROC, which consists in the fact that some authors advocate the idea of spiritual leadership of Orthodoxy in modern Russia, while others argue that in post-perestroika culture secularization processes are growing. In this connection, the solution of the question of the ROC impact on modern Russian society is very important both theoretically and practically.
Based on data from numerous sociological studies, the author concludes that the government support of the ROC wouldn’t lead to any increase in its influence in society, but, on the contrary, caused a storm of criticism from liberals accusing the state and the Church of clericalization of culture, as well as dissatisfaction of Russians evaluating the increasing influence of the ROC on the society.
Based on an analysis of the axiological preferences of the Russians, the author reasons that the ROC has no significant influence on the Russian society, since divergence is growing between the Orthodox values and the values that guide most Russians.
The results of the study show that the influence of the ROC will be the greater the influence of the other faiths and cults, the more related will be the values that dominate in the modern Russian culture.