ABSTRACT
The churches—and Russian Orthodoxy in particular as Russia's dominant Church—have been hard pressed to cope with the rapid change in the environment. The modernization of the Russian Orthodox Church has, in effect, been a function of its approach to church-state relations. So far from attempting the modifications and innovations normally associated with modernization, the Russian Orthodox Church has moved further and further away from innovation and experimentation. In 1917 Russian Orthodoxy was one of the world's more reactionary churches: it reacted against change, innovation and modernization in society. The modernization of the Russian Orthodox Church is a side effect of the primary, overwhelming problem facing all forms of institutionalized religion in the USSR: church-state relations. The churches own preference for church-state relations was to act as society's conscience. The Russian Orthodox Church was quick to comply with the state's official demand of separation of church and state.
