This article is devoted to the methodology of research in the field of religiosity in the USSR. The author outlines the weaknesses of current scholarship: the lack of knowledge of others’ works, inability to widen the scope of used sources for a more multidimentional analysis, etc. He specifically refers to a problem of a researcher’s being concentrated exclusively on the documents from one particular “favourite” archival fund — usually “the fund of the commissioner for religious affairs” — which turns the research into an uncritical retelling of the documents found there. 

This article argues that scholars interested in studying religious practice in the Soviet Union should focus on “lived religion” as a valid form of religiosity. This concept allows for the consideration of the improvised nature of religious practices that were often conducted outside of churches and involved appeals to spirits in addition to an anthropomorphic God.