Resurrection of the temple the role of the state in shaping regional political identity

Abstract

he disintegration of the USSR in 1991 left Russia’s new leaders without a “defining idea” (Gill 2005:494); recently, the Russian political leadership has clearly demonstrated that religion should play a stronger role in the search for such. For example, at the 2012 pre-election meeting with the leaders of the “traditional religious communities”, Vladimir Putin-then the Prime Minister and a presidential candidate-stated that, “since the collapse of the Soviet Union, our country has lived through turbulent times and, in moral questions, could not rely on anything else except for religious values”.