Functioning of Traditional Orthodox Culture in the USSR of the 1940-1980s as a Historiographical Problem: Key Issues and Possible Solutions

The relevance of the research topic is due to the importance of scientific understanding of the evolution of the traditional confessional worldview and relevant practices in the era of Soviet modernity, as well as the need to fit the history of Orthodox culture into the general context of the spiritual history of the USSR.
The purpose of the paper is to identify the features of the current historiographical situation and the prospects for research in the field of studying the religious conduct of Orthodox citizens of the USSR in the post-war period.
Objectives: analysis of the specifics of the study of confessional processes in the USSR in Soviet and postSoviet historiography; identification of key issues facing modern humanitarian research in this area; identification of promising areas for further research of the processes of functioning and reproduction of Orthodox culture in the USSR.
Methodology. The main methods that were used in the course of the research were historical-genetic and comparative-historical methods, as well as the method of prospective analysis.
Results. The paper shows that the popularity of "religious" problems in the post-Soviet period predetermined a large number of works on the subject of state-church relations, and attracted the attention of researchers to many individual episodes of the church history of the XX century. At the same time, the evolution of Orthodox culture in the depths of Soviet society rarely became the subject of independent research by specialists in the field of the church's past. It was mainly addressed in the context of "institutional history". Important problems of modern humanities in this area are the attitude to the opposition of the "Soviet world" and Orthodox traditions, as well as the lack of extensive works on the dynamics of confessional processes in the USSR.
Conclusions. The paper concludes that contemporary humanitarian science is faced with the task of fully integrating the history of Orthodox culture into the history of everyday life of Soviet society. Its successful solution is possible within the framework of an interdisciplinary scientific search that combines elements of concrete historical, historical-anthropological, cultural-anthropological and social-philosophical research.

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