ABSTRACT
The growing secularization of Russian society, which Western ideologies especially reinforced, soon created a rift between the religious masses and the intellectual elite, and, eventually, between the tsar and the intelligentsia. The Tsars were interested in shackling the Church and society to strengthen their power. As Tsarist Russia pulled away from its religious roots and adopted Western secular ideologies and models, it increasingly found itself with a weakened system of order and civic cooperation. Intellectuals, nationalists, students, workers, and farmers all demonstrated a heightened interest in religion. Russia will reorganize, naturally, on the basis of Russian Orthodoxy, but it will, hopefully, be a reformed Orthodoxy that supports limited government, the rule of law, and religious freedom. Orthodoxy, in fact, seems to hold out the best hope for stability and security among the Russians, and not only the Russians. Religion, seemingly, is the defining reality in Eastern Europe and Russia.
