Trust and the Russian Orthodox Church: the dependence of dynamics on the socio-political context and the problem of accurate measurement

The subject of this article is the dynamics of change in the Russian society's trust in the Russian Orthodox Church in the period from 2009 to 2022. The article analyzes the data of the largest sociological services in Russia, studying the polls of the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (WCIOM), the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) and Levada Center* to trace the trends of fluctuations in the level of trust in the Russian Orthodox Church over the specified period of time. Along with studying the data of mass sociological surveys, it is noted that it is necessary to assess trust not only through sociological surveys, but also through in-depth interviews. This allows to identify to a greater extent the individual characteristics of respondents and their religiosity, which makes it possible to determine the true attitude to the Church, rather than the declared solidarity with a public institution with ties to the state. The study is based on the use of open sociological data and their comparative analysis, on the comparison of statistics and socio-political context. The article traces the connection between the dynamics of trust and the socio-political processes taking place in the country, as well as with the social work of the Church itself and its activities against the background of various scandals, public discussions and the problem of the fight against the pandemic COVID-19. Trust in the Russian Orthodox Church is subject to significant fluctuations, closely linked to the current socio-political agenda. Trust assessment should be conducted comprehensively, using quantitative and qualitative methods, in order to obtain a more complete and objective picture of Russian society's attitude towards the Church as a social institution.

trust, russian society, Russian Orthodox Church, sociological survey, social dynamics, public opinion, religiosity, COVID-19, social institutions, sociopolitical context