Degree Name
Master of Arts
Graduate Program
Political Science
Advisor
Joseph T. Grant
Abstract
In recent years, the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian military has garnered significant scholarly attention. Notable contributions from Adamsky (2019) and the Garrards (2008) assert the integral nature of this relationship. This research paper builds on this research by examining the relationship between the level of Orthodox religiosity in the Russian public and the Russian nuclear complex. This research provides a foundational step towards a deeper understanding of the Russian Orthodox Church’s navigation within Russia’s religious market. The primary objective is to better understand the connection between the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia’s military-nuclear complex. The research paper begins with an overview of Russia’s religious market and a review of the extant literature on the church-state relationship in Russia. This literature offers several hypotheses for the relationship between the public’s involvement and support for the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia’s military, specifically its nuclear program. I test between these hypotheses using a novel measure of Orthodox religiosity. I employ time series analysis to investigate the existence of a cointegrated relationship between this measure and Russia’s nuclear-military complex. I find evidence of a cointegration, which suggests that levels of Orthodox beliefs and practices move through time with changes in the military. Further analysis using error correction models reveals that this relationship is not causal. This indicates an underlying process influencing both series. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications and final remarks.