Why are we being persuaded that the West is decaying and that Russia is the most spiritual country?
“The actions of the United States and other unfriendly countries, transnational corporations and NGOs, among other things, pose a threat to the traditional values of the Russian Federation,” the Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values says.
The general idea of the speeches of politicians, publicists, and the statements of ordinary citizens is based on a sharp contrast between the spiritual and moral decay of the West and the moral purity that persists in Russia, which alone opposes the subversive influence of the United States and Europe.
It is flattering to be aware of oneself as a defender of eternal and supreme values, but the disputes between Westernizers and Russophiles are most often unconstructive and resemble the famous dispute between Ostap Bender and priests:
“Hey, you seraphim and cherubim, there’s no god!”
– No, there is!
Let us try to objectively assess modern Russia by the standards of spirituality used by critics of Western culture. This is not an easy task, because “spirituality” is an abstract and difficult concept to measure.

Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1975.
First, let us determine whether Russian religious spirituality is meant, as it is necessarily present in reflections on “Orthodox and holy Russia.” Let me remind you that when the Provisional Government announced in 1917 that church attendance was voluntary for military personnel, less than 10% of soldiers began to go to church. And now, for 2021, the Levada Center gives the number of those who call themselves Orthodox at 65%, no more than half of them believe, less than 4% attend churches, and almost no one knows the “Symbol of Faith” – the obligatory prayer of a believer. (I understand, you could say that faith is in my soul, I don’t have to pray… But the Papuan also has his own faith and prayer in his soul! Orthodox – fast, pray and go to church!) So, the spirituality of the Russian Federation is not in Orthodoxy.
Traditionalists and conservatives usually include a system of so-called “family values” in the concept of “spirituality.” But the situation with family values in Russian society is very sad. According to the UN, the Russian Federation ranks 3rd in the world in terms of the number of divorces per 1000 people: Maldives – 5.5; Kazakhstan – 4.6; Russia – 3.9. The U.S. is lagging behind, in 13th place.
Again, according to the UN, our country is the absolute leader in the number of abortions: there are 53.7 abortions per 1,000 women, followed by Vietnam (!) with 35.2.
The state of domestic violence directed at a woman and a child does not correspond to the high principles of spirituality. A committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation cites information that violence in one form or another is observed in almost every fourth Russian family. Every year, more than 14,000 women die at the hands of their husbands or other loved ones. A Russian woman is 2.5 times more likely to be killed by her husband than an American woman and five times more likely than a Western European woman. Naturally, in such conditions, the birth rate drops catastrophically – now it is 2 children per 3 families, and a quarter of those born live in single-parent families.
I want to be misunderstood: the “affttarok” is not going to denigrate Russia. The main goal is to draw attention to the negative processes that are gaining momentum in the country. The authorities persistently point to the decay of spiritual values “in the Wild West,” as if they are trying to divert attention from the terrible cultural and value decay that is actually taking place in Russia under their policies.
And there is only one argument left to prove the triumph of Russian spirituality: there, in the cursed West, there are parents No. 1 and No. 2, and also terrible gay pride parades! And a Russian person must believe that no matter how bad life is, “the main thing is that there are no gays.” Other than that, we’re so spiritual!

