ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief overview of the Russian encounters with modernity and then test applicability of the 'multiple modernities' and 'post-secular' theoretical frameworks to the Russian material. It explains that these two frameworks are not necessarily linked to each other: a specific religious tradition does not necessarily offer a conceptual key to explain a different kind of modernity. In other words, the 'modern multiplicity' can not be explained by the multiplicity of faiths, as might be deduced from the post-secular perspective. The chapter examines that the Russian case proves a stronger link between modernity and secularity than is usually held by the currently prominent critiques of the classical theories of modernization and secularization. The post-Soviet regimes tried to introduce a new, European type of moderate secularism; it was the first real experience of lacit in Russian history. Religious arguments, among others, were used to create a brand of new Russian nationalism.
