religious identity

Russian Orthodox Women in Unorthodox Times: Patterns of Female Agency and Authority in the Revolutionary Era, 1917–1927

This paper examines various ways in which lay Orthodox women — as mothers, wives, workers, and daughters — navigated the challenges and opportunities they encountered with respect to their faith in the early Soviet period. It centers on two questions: How did women’s faith impact their experience of the Revolution under Bolshevik rule? And how did women’s religious beliefs, behaviors, and faith‑based relationships influence how the Revolution was “lived”?

Religion and Identity in Buryatia: Competition between Orthodoxy and Buddhism in Late Imperial Russia (On Materials from St. Petersburg Archives)

This paper discusses the political importance of religious identity in the context of competition between Orthodoxy and Buddhism in the Buryat spiritual space in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Christianization of Buryats as well as other non‑Russians in the remote regions of Russia seemed a necessary tool for strengthening the borders of the empire, which were under threat from Qing China.

The Church In-Between: Armenian Catholics in Post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia

Greek Catholic Identity in Western Ukraine During the Process of Legalization, 1980s — 1990s

The article deals with the revival of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the 1980-1990s. The Church officially ceased to exist in 1946 after the «reunification» with the Russian Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, the part of the Greek Catholic clergy and the faithful did not recognize this act and moved to the underground. The process of legalization and revival was accompanied by the growing movement for the Ukrainian national independence.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Rethinking the Relationship between Confessional, Ethnic and National Identities (Focus on Bosniaks / Muslims)

From Stranger to Parishioner, or the Religious Identity of Aged People from Ivanovo Region