Belarus is a multiconfessional state. This country has gone through a difficult period of formation as a nation. Throughout its history, it was part of one European country, then another, and this greatly affected the local culture. Religion in Belarus also bears the imprint of the complex, but exciting history of the Belarusian people. We will talk about this.
Religion in Belarus: History
Until the 11th century AD, the territory of modern Belarus was part of the Old Russian state and, together with its other regions, was converted to Orthodoxy. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, several separate principalities appeared on the territory of Belarus, the most famous of which was Polotsk. The Orthodox Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk is widely known, the cross of which until 1995 was one of the state symbols of the Republic of Belarus. It follows from this that the original, basic religion in Belarus was nevertheless Orthodox Christianity.
The coming of catholicism
But in the XII century, religious unity in the Belarusian lands was put to an end. After most of the modern territory of this country came under the influence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, religion in Belarus fell under the influence of Catholicism. Of course, this did not happen right away: the pagan Lithuanians and their princes rushed between the two civilization centers for a long time, alternately adopting either Orthodoxy or Catholicism. But the final choice was nevertheless made in favor of Western Christianity. Thus, the ancestors of Belarusians were in the power of the Catholic state for almost 1000 years. Naturally, this could not but affect the religion in Belarus, despite all the tolerance of the Lithuanians.
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The religious policy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was indeed very tolerant. Initially, Catholicism was not implanted in any way, and representatives of the Belarusian Orthodox aristocracy had the opportunity to join the Lithuanian gentry and eventually completely slavized it. Among the names of the magnates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, already in the 16th - 17th centuries we do not find almost any Lithuanian surname proper. The Lithuanian statutes - the main legislative acts of the state - were not written in Lithuanian, but in Old Russian. The ancestors of modern Belarusians at that time called themselves nothing more than Litvins, voluntarily emphasizing their belonging to the State of Lithuania.
Polonization and Catholicization
When the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began to draw closer to the Kingdom of Poland, adopting its customs and cultural traditions, a difficult era began for Orthodoxy in Belarus. After the unification of the two states into a single Commonwealth in the 15th century, the Polish authorities began the process of polonization (rinsing) of the Orthodox Eastern Slavic population of Ukraine and Belarus. The ancestors of modern Belarusians and Ukrainians - in fact Russian people - were literally forced to become Poles and adopt Catholicism. This complex socio-political and cultural-religious process eventually led to the formation of separate Ruthenian (Ukrainian) and Litvin (Belarusian) identities.
After the Krevsky and Lublin unions, the Greek Catholicism, or Uniate, was added to the whole bouquet of religions in Belarus. The Uniates are former Orthodox, preserving their liturgical rite, church style and characteristic temple architecture, but swearing allegiance to the Pope. After the Lithuanian princes took over the former Mongol-Tatar governor, having allocated estates to them in Belarus, the western part of the Belarusian lands quickly overgrown with picturesque mosques and minarets. A large concentration of Jews in cities such as Minsk, Orsha, Brest and Mogilev gave the whole ensemble of religious and cultural life in Belarus a special rich color.
Religion in modern Belarus
Belarus went through a symbiosis with Lithuania, intensified polonization, Russification in the Russian Empire, indigenization in the USSR, and in 1991 for the first time in its history became an independent state. All these trials and cultural metamorphoses could not but affect the religion of Belarus as a state. In the early years of independence, Protestant missionaries and sectarians of all kinds immediately surged into the country. Baptists made joyful round dances. Anabaptists urged ordinary street onlookers to convert to their faith. Mormons knocked on houses and offered to talk about a true understanding of the Bible. Scientologists suggested that Belarusians undergo an auditing session in order to get rid of traumatic memories and find inner harmony.
As a result, we have the following statistics on religion in the Republic of Belarus among believers:
- Orthodox - 80%;
- Catholics - 10%;
- all the rest (Muslims, Protestants) - 10%.
At the same time, about half of Belarusians are atheists, which is a fairly high indicator. An obvious trend is a decrease in the number of Catholics and an increase in the number of Orthodox.