Russian Empire’s Religion

Before the Empire (900’s BC)
Although Russia began around the 800’s BC, it was not until the late 900’s (around 990 BC) that Russia chose an official religion. King Vladimir I took the throne in 989 BC, and decided to choose an official religion. He thought about this carefully, because he had to consider the religions of Russia’s neighbors. Although Islam was becoming popular in Asia, Vladimir thought that it would be too strict for the people of Russia. Finally, he chose Greek Orthodox Christianity, which meant that countries in Western European would think of him as an ally, or friendly country, since they all shared a religion.

Greek Orthodox Christianity is the form of Christianity that comes from the Byzantine Empire—and the Byzantine Empire was once the eastern half of the Greek empire. Orthodox is a word that means traditional and accepted. The Greek Orthodox ceremonies are done in the Greek language, which is tradition.

Peter the Great and the Russian Church
As the kings were replaced with tsars in Russia, politics changed. The tsars believed that they should have absolute (complete and total) control over everything in their country. Peter the Great did not like that the Church of Russia had so much power. The Church of Russia had serfs, land, and enough wealth that it might threaten a tsar. Also, it refused to become modern. Even though Peter the Great was changing his country to be more modern in many ways, the Church refused to be a part of this.

So when the church Patriarch, or head of the church, died in 1700, Peter did not replace him with another Patriarch. Instead, he gave control of the church land, serfs, and wealth to a new government department that he made. In 1721, Peter passed laws that told church officials (people in charge) what they should do in every part of their daily life. By controlling what the Church of Russia did, Peter the Great was now in charge of every single part of his country. He was an absolute ruler. Only when the people of Russia overthrew the government in 1917 was a new patriarch named. Then control of the church was taken away from the government.

Christ the Savior Church in Moscow (Greek Orthodox Christian)

Archbishop Demetrios (Greek Orthodox Christian)