How (and why) should we study Russian Christianity after 2022?

After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the media and scholarly attention to the Russian Orthodox Church have grown significantly. I will address the frustrating and misleading trends in this interest and suggest a more nuanced and adequate approach. More often than not, the political influence of the Church and her Patriarch in particular is overestimated, the Church is reduced to just her leadership, and Orthodox Christianity is superficially perceived as the main ideological narrative in the war propaganda. I will address the most popular myths and suggest the methods to study Russian Christianity amidst the renaissance of the Iron Curtain.

Igor Mikeshin is a scholar of religion and a social anthropologist. He holds a Doctor of Social Sciences degree from the University of Helsinki (2016). Igor Mikeshin's research and teaching focus on Christianity in Russia, especially on ideology, culture, conversion, lived experience, lay theology, and the Bible.