ABSTRACT
Besides Russia, eight former socialist countries were included in the 1998 International Social Survey Program - Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, East Germany, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In many ways Slovenia, a new and tiny nation which was able to free itself from Yugoslavia because Croatia was a massive barrier between it and the Serb army, is the most interesting of the former socialist countries outside the Soviet Union. In Hungary belief in life after death, a caring God, and heaven have increased significantly during the nineties as has frequent prayer. While both countries are, in most respects, more religious than Russia, they have not experienced the exciting religious revolution that has apparently occurred in Russia, a country in which, like Poland, the church has been on the side of traditional Russian culture. Nonetheless, neither country fits the Orange "secularization" model and both have more believers and more churchgoers than does Britain.
