RELIGION AS AN IDEOLOGICAL RESOURCE OF THE POST-SOVIET ELITE

Abstract

Significant transformations in the field of economics and politics dictate the need for an ideological reconstruction. In the history of Russia there are two ideas for integration function: Communist and monotheistic. The post-Soviet elite, faced with the problem of legitimizing their status, turned to religion as an ideological resource. Part of the elite oriented to the West, has made a choice in favor of religious individualism (Protestantism). This change is due to a desire to get rid of a collectivist worldview in favor of individualism, to remove the burden of responsibility. Protestantism, justifying the need for the individual to rely on their own resources, psychologically reinforced by the belief in their exclusivity, well-suited for this role. Ethno-national elite, on the contrary, asked the national religion. Turning from the general to the particular, the replacement of the principle of unity in diversity was triggered by the destruction and the weakening of state structures and relationships. Trying to give the status of a national religion and ideological braces dictated by political motives. The need to justify the tactical or strategic separatist aspirations. The ideological core of religion, ethnicity, serving imperious ethno-national elite can only be a principle of ethnocentrism. In the public debate it has been proposed as the idea of ​​creating a synthetic religion – Development of religion, capable, supposedly, to remove religious differences and conflicts, to give impetus to the development of Russian society. In fact, synthetic religious structure is a way of abolishing the existing religions in the Russian space. Competition of different ideas in religion formation can make only the ideological and political projects at the state level, which aim to unite the members of society, regardless of their religious preferences.