Does the Russian army need chaplains? The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) has asked the people in Russia to answer this question. What served as a pretext for a sociological survey on that score was the decision of the Defence Ministry to establish the Army Chaplaincy.
More than 50 per cent of the people in this country believe that the Russian Army does not need chaplains. True, such is the opinion, mainly, of all those who will not have to serve in the army - meaning those who are not within the conscription age and women. The attitude to the spiritual leadership in the army also depends on the attitude of the participants of the public opinion poll to the army on the whole, a worker with the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, Stepan Lvov, says:
"The better the people in Russia assess the present-day condition of the Russian Army, the more often they say that the Army Chaplaincy is a dire necessity. There're differences in the opinions on this problem in the groups with different material situations. Which means that the lower the self-appraisal of the material situation, the more often respondents find it necessary that the presence of the military chaplains in the army is a dire necessity".
Of interest here is also the fact that the clerics themselves have never raised such an issue. The representatives of all confessions are certain that servicemen need a spiritual support. There's disagreement here only over the fact that the military clergy in Russia will be represented only by the four religions, which are the most spread in this country: the Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism, The Defence Ministry will determine by a simple vote-counting what cleric should be sent to this or that military unit. If not less than one-tenth of the complement of servicemen proves to be the supporters of one confession, they will surely have a chaplain of their own.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, 80 per cent of the soldiers and officers, who say they are believers, reckon themselves as Orthodox Christians, 13 per cent - as Muslims and 3 per cent - as Buddhists. Shortly enough the military is going to carefully study the religious complement of the Russian Armed Forces.
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