ABSTRACT
Archpriest Nikolai was right. Except for special occasions and high holy days like Easter, Christmas, and Trinity Sunday, Russian Orthodox churches are not badly overcrowded if one bears in mind that worshipers normally stand. Father Innokenti pointed out that churches in the western lands that became communist only in the 1940s were better attended. In those territories, he said, there were still large numbers of people whose religious formation occurred before Soviet rule brought an end to church schools and catechization. Many more people attend services on great religious holidays like Easter; others attend for funerals, baptisms, and marriages; others attend perhaps two or three times a year for some special reason. Since the 1980s the number of young people of both sexes going to church has significantly increased. Fletcher reported the findings of Soviet researchers that "there is indeed an immense correlation between religiousness and educational level in the general population".
