EASTERN-RELIGIONS AND THE NEW RELIGIOUS AWARENESS IN RUSSIA

Followers of Eastern religions, and those drawn by Eastern spirituality, make up a very small percentage of the Russian population, and are to be found mainly in urban, educated environments. Nevertheless, Eastern forms of worship occupy an important place in the religious scene, in the sense in which they attract the young, and typify the new religious awareness, a study of which could contribute to a more general analysis of spiritual attitudes in contemporary Russia. This study based on direct observation of seven Moscow communities, and in-depth interviews with leaders and followers, enables the reader to identify certain aspects of the contemporary Russian socio-religious scene. It illustrates the consequences of the dramatic collapse of the old symbolic order in 1989-1992, and the emergence of a Grenzsituation, marked by a disoriented population, and a profound personal identity crisis : withdrawal in the inner self, and private life ; development of non-conformism, and concern with the transcendental as a reaction against the spiritual nullity of communism, an all-pervading pragmatism, and depersonalization. Reactions vary with the individual. Particularly, those '' seeking a direction '' turn more frequently to religion, whether it be orthodoxy (the traditional religion of Russia), or new forms of religious awareness, which are seen as an ''alternative'' or ''another way'', and thereby offer many attractions. This choice has cognitive as well as socio-cultural roots. But, gradually, what begins as non-conformism tends to be replaced by a new institutionalized religious awareness.