斯拉夫諸語言

俄羅斯正教會(Russian Orthodox Church)

俄國東正教教會，實際上是它的國教。988年基輔的弗拉基米爾王子（後來的弗拉基米爾一世）支援拜占庭東正教，命令他的國民進行洗禮。到14世紀，基輔和所有俄國（俄羅斯教會的總部）的大城市都屬於莫斯科；不滿意的西部俄國公國獲得了暫時的單獨的大城市，但主權後來重新集於莫斯科下。15世紀該教會放棄接受大城市伊西多爾和西部教會的聯合（參閱Ferrara-Florence,Council of），指定了它們自己獨立的大城市。莫斯科視自己為「第三個羅馬」和真正東正教的最後壁壘；1589年俄羅斯教會的領導者獲得族長的稱號，將自己置於君士坦丁堡、亞歷山大、安提俄克和耶路撒冷族長的地位。尼康的改革在教會裡引起了分裂（參閱Old Believer），彼得大帝（彼得一世）在1721年廢除了族長統治，使教會管理成為國家的一個部門。族長統治重建於1917年，即布林什維克革命的兩個月前，但在蘇維埃下，教會被剝奪了合法權利，實際上被鎮壓。隨著蘇聯的分解（1991），它經歷了巨大的復興。美國的俄羅斯正教會在1970年從莫斯科獨立出來。

English version：

Russian Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox church of Russia,its de facto national church. In 988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev (later St. Vladimir) embraced Byzantine Orthodoxy and ordered the baptism of his population. By the 14th century,the metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia (head of the Russian church) was residing in Moscow; dissatisfied western Russian principalities obtained temporary separate metropolitans,but authority was later recentralized under Moscow. In the 15th century the church,rejecting Metropolitan Isidore's acceptance of union with the Western church (see Council of Ferrara-Florence),appointed their own independent metropolitan. Moscow saw itself as the “third Rome” and the last bulwark of true Orthodoxy; in 1589 the head of the Russian church obtained the title patriarch,putting him on a level with the patriarchs of Constantinople,Alexandria,Antioch,and Jerusalem. The reforms of Nikon caused a schism within the church (see Old Believers),and Peter I abolished the patriarchate in 1721,making church administration a department of the state. The patriarchate was reestablished in 1917,two months before the Bolshevik revolution,but under the soviets the church was deprived of its legal rights and practically suppressed. It saw a great resurgence following the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991). The Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S. became independent from Moscow in 1970.