ABSTRACT
As we try to understand the road that our country has gone down over the last three decades, and to figure out which way we are going and what chance we have to preserve its unity and integrity, we cannot avoid considering a range of issues that stem from the cultural diversity that is unique to Russian society. The key factors of Russia’s cultural diversity are Russians’ varied ethnic and religious backgrounds. It appears that these aspects of self-identification have undergone the most substantive change over the period in question. It was a time of transition from the monolithic (at least in words) ‘Soviet people’ and belligerent atheism to a heterogeneous society with a range of ethnic and religious groups, each with its own social particularities, protecting the interests of its members, which are not necessarily congruent with the national ones. On the other hand, national interests will be clearly identified later. However, they can only be identified after we adequately assess the influence of ethnic and religious relations on the country’s social life. In this chapter we will try to outline our vision of the issue.
