State Atheism - Legacy

Legacy

Author Niels Christian Nielsen has written that the post-Soviet population in areas which were formerly predominantly Orthodox are now "nearly illiterate regarding religion", almost completely lacking the intellectual or philosophical aspects of their faith and having almost no knowledge of other faiths. Nonetheless, their knowledge of their faith and the faith of others notwithstanding, many post-Soviet populations have a large presence of religious followers. In Russia, the 2007 International Religious Freedom Report published by the US Department of State said that approximately 100 million citizens consider themselves Russian Orthodox Christians.

According to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 63% of respondents considered themselves Russian Orthodox, 6% of respondents considered themselves Muslim and less than 1% considered themselves either Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish. Another 12% said they believe in God, but did not practice any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers. In Ukraine, 96.1% of the Ukrainian population is Christian. In Lithuania, a 2005 report stated that 79% of Lithuanians belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.

Most Poles—approximately 88.4% in 2007, are members of the Roman Catholic Church. According to the CIA World Factbook and the U.S. Department of State, 60% of Mongolia's population are religious. Likewise, despite the Soviet Union's attempts to eliminate religion, other former USSR and anti-religious nations, such as Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Moldova, Mexico, Albania, and Georgia have high religious populations.