In tsarist Russia, before 1917 (the year in which the October revolution proclaimed the dictatorship of the working class) all Russian women believed in God, and went to the church regularly. Not only women, but all people in those times were tied up with the church: the rites of baptizing, marriage, burial were performed under the holy laws only. Before the Revolution people in Russia strictly observed fasts. Each settlement had its own saint and celebrated a holiday in his honor.
The situation was abruptly changed when in 1917 the bolsheviks came to power. The state home policy was directed against the church. The church was removed from the state affairs. The slogan of those years was "Religion is opium for people". Many priests and their families were persecuted. Orthodox churches were closed down everywhere, monasteries were dismissed. The symbol of that epoch is the destruction of the Temple of Christ the Savior in Moscow that was erected in 1812 on public money to commemorate the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon.
Communist ideology replaced Christianity for many years. Believers were persecuted, those who were not members of Pioneer Organization or Komsomol (young communists) found it impossible to enter any institution of higher education.


The collapse o f the USSR and failure of communist ideology were accompanied by the revival of Christianity. At the end of the 1990s everywhere in Russia Orthodox churches were opened. But not only Orthodox churches, missionaries from the USA and West Europe extend their sphere of activity. Various protestant confessions - Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and others are legalized and start their propaganda. In those times all political leaders and public persons ‘rushed’ to the church to sanctify their activity.
Somehow common sense replaced religious euphoria. Nowadays almost every Russian woman goes to the church, but rarely more often than once or twice a year to fire a candle to honor the memory of the dead or to pray for the health of the living. Many couples sanctify their marriage by going through the church rite. But modern Russian women observe only the exterior of the rites without knowing the meaning of them: they go through the rite of christening and get their children christened, they go to the church on Easter and Christmas, some observe church fasts. But this is a tribute to the tradition, religious fanatics are not numerous. Russian Orthodox church did not manage to restore its former impact on the hearts and souls of its followers. But the link between the woman and the church is inherent in all Russian hearts, for they have always sought help from God in difficult situations.

An ordinary Russian woman is not a real believer. But such cool attitude to religious traditions doesn't mean that women from FSU are atheists. Almost all of them believe in the existence of that or another divine power. But their faith often is a mix of orthodox and pagan ideas. As well as in God they believe in witches, witchcraft, malefice, fortunetelling . Russian woman's faith is rooted in the subconscious. Her intuition drives her to follow Christian commandments and observe Christian rites. Not many would tell you the difference between the Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church, but the Russian woman trusts in only one God to help her cope with her life that is far from being straight and easy. . .