Church-State Relation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State Authorities in the Mass Consciousness of Big City and Town Dwellers

During the last 20 years, different religions, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, have been playing a significant role in Russian society. The big religion organisations influence not only their followers, but also the whole population of the country by intervening in other than religious spheres of life, such as social, cultural, or political ones despite the fact that the country is an officially secular state. This paper examines the ambiguous but close historical relations between the Church and state after the collapse of communism and the Soviet empire. Its goal is to understand how the church-state relations can be connected with the ROC’s image that is shaping in the society. It uses the indices of Government Regulation and Favoritism of Religion Questions public opinion results to reveal some factors that connected with the perception of the Church by big city and town dwellers. Research reveals connection between high government regulation of religion and hostile behaviour among Russian citizens based on religious issues that reflects public dissatisfaction with the church-state relations between government and the ROC.