Compared to nations like the United States, the Russian population is largely atheist, or doesn’t practice any religion at all. This accounts for nearly half the population. However, for those who do believe in a faith, the dominant one is Christianity. The Christianity sect is large though, with the majority of the Christian people being worshipers of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has played a major role in Russia’s identity. The Russian Orthodox Church is largely known for its ties to the Patriarchs of Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church is closely related to orthodox churches located in any other country, focusing on the same practices, and using the same techniques.
Though the mainstream religion for the Russian people is Christianity, there are many different forms of religion practiced, from baptist, to paganism. Baptism is the second most widespread religion in the Russian culture after Christianity. Followed after that by the Pentecostals… and evangelicals. However, in a strange swing, Slavic Paganism is gaining a strong following, and extensive studies are being done into the fields of Slavic Mythology. The idea’s of Slavic Paganism aren’t far off of the beliefs of mainstream Christianity and other modern day religions, the same basic principles apply.
Throughout most of the formation of Russia, its people have had a lot of hardships. From Civil wars, to other civil wars… straight to world wars, the Russian people have gone through many hardships, from military, to food shortages, to dictators that are probably on a deeper level of hell than Hitler himself. Probably the most prominent Russian hardship, or at least the most well known, would be the Russian wars. Which started with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, The social class gap had grown too wide, and as Marx had predicted, a war broke out. With the protalitariot winning this, the aristocracy (Pretty much all of them) were put to death. Shortly after that, The first communist leader came to power… Lenin, marking a whole new era in soviet history.
The Soviet era started once communist Russia was established. Going pretty much straight from the revolution into World War One was something the Russians did decently well. With men, and supplies in strong demand, Russia did pretty decently for itself. A bit later after that, World War Two broke out, Lenin was gone, and Joseph Stalin had taken his place. Stalin was arguably the single worst ruler know. With a total of 28 Million civilian casualties, and eight million military casualties throughout World War Two. He also set ridiculously strict limitations on the civilians, restricting food, and water privileges, and basically ridding life of the bare necessities. After WWII the Russian people remained a communist form of government until the early nineties. Throughout the 1900’s the Russian population has went through Starvation, arctic weather, and war after war.
Twentieth century experiences with this group are innumerable. From starring as the “evil” race in a lot of action movies, to the cold war, it seems as if the U.S. And the U.S.S.R. Have locked horns with no indication of either moving. After WWII no democratic state felt comfortable having the totalitarian party on their side. Basically ignored during meetings with the U.S. And most of Europe, the gap between the states widened. Russia eventually started to pass the US technologically, and militarily. With their space program already having the satellite, and the US having to start from scratch with NASA. The USSR also had created the largest nuclear explosion to this date during their nuclear testing.
A very dramatic encounter the US had with the USSR would be the cold war, after World War Two the US and the USSR basically had a full out race for global super power. The Soviets lead, most of the time, beating us at our own sports, destroying us scientifically, and leading us in the arms race. The red scare of the 1950’s is probably the greatest example of this. The United States government was so afraid of the government being overturned in favor of a communist party that it enacted a law making it legal for you to report suspected “communist followers. There would be legal actions taken against them, and in one case, a couple was executed for believing in a communistic system.
The greatest intolerance towards this group would have taken place during the 1950’s during the red scare. The Russian people were portrayed as evil, greedy, plotting human beings, while most people had immigrated from Russia to escape the harsh living conditions enforced by the government, they were prosecuted un-relentlessly at the hands of the US people and government. It was basically a felony to believe in the Communistic system. On top of that, people everywhere were being convicted of being “communists”. The conviction was targeted mostly at eastern Europeans, or those with accents. These people were prosecuted to the full extent.
Another time of intolerance, though a strange one, would have been the discrimination between the protalitariot and the aristocracy. The two classes basically separated until one controlled all the wealth. The rest had nothing. Whenever things became unbearable, the protalitariot revolted against the bourgeoisie. Essentially the aristocratic class of Russia was executed for crimes against the people.
