This Europe: Religion replaces Lenin for children of Russia
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Your support makes all the difference.A small statue of Vladimir Lenin presides over the lobby of the school in the village of Yamkino. But upstairs, the pupils are receiving a lesson decidedly at odds with the state atheism imposed by the Soviet Union's founding father.
They're learning about the theology of the Russian Orthodox Church.
School administrators in the Noginsk district, with some 20,000 students, 22 miles south-east of Moscow, added religion to the curriculum as a moral framework to replace Lenin's discredited Communist dogma.
Such lessons seem to be spreading, despite a federal law prohibiting religion in schools and the Russian constitution's separation of church and state. Human rights groups worry that bringing the dominant Russian Orthodox Church into public schools will upset the fragile ethnic peace.
Officials in Noginsk and the priests who helped to develop the class, "The Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture", say their version is respectful to other faiths. They say they are merely exposing students to traditional religion, which they say is essential for understanding Russia, its art and its literature.
School officials say anyone can opt out of the class. The Rev Igor Gagarin, who trained Noginsk teachers, said the class differs from God's Law, the Tsarist-era theology course that was mandatory for all children. "We're not teaching people to pray," he said. "God's Law assumes everyone studying it is a believer. We say we want to teach you about the faith, and you can decide for yourself whether to be a believer or not."
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