Russian Church property restitution is an inaccurate term used by some mass mediaЦерковная реституция. Archive: 6 May 2010 на Wayback Machine. // Коммерсантъ. — 18 June 2007. (the issue of restitution in the Russian Federation (RF) has never been officially raised by anyone)Святейший Патриарх Алексий подтвердил, что Русская Церковь не требует от государства реституции церковного имущества. Archive: 20 September 2008 на Wayback Machine. Официальный сайт РПЦ, 9 April 2008. to refer to the process of transferring to the ownership of religious organizations (primarily the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)) certain categories of property owned by several religious structures before 1918 (the ROC, as a centralized religious organization with the rights of a legal entity in the Russian Empire, did not have the rights of a religious organization) and transferred, in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of 20 January 1918 "On Separation of Church from State and School from Church",Об отделении церкви от государства и школы от церкви (Декрет Совета Народных Комиссаров). Дата обращения: 13 February 2010. Archive: 8 November 2012. to the ownership of the state – the Soviet Union, and after 1991, by succession, to the Russian Federation.
On 30 November 2010, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signedПодписан закон о передаче религиозным организациям имущества религиозного назначения. Archive: 22 January 2012 на Wayback Machine на официальном сайте Президента России. the Federal Law of the Russian Federation # 327-FZ "On the Transfer of Religious Property Owned by the State or Municipalities to Religious Organizations", which defines "the procedure of free transfer of religious property owned by the federal government, constituent territories of the Russian Federation or municipalities to religious organizations for ownership or free use".Федеральный закон Российской Федерации от 30 ноября 2010 г. No. 327-ФЗ «О передаче религиозным организациям имущества религиозного назначения, находящегося в государственной или муниципальной собственности». Archive: 7 January 2011 на Wayback Machine // Российская газета. — 3 December 2010.
Between 1995 and 2010, about 1.1 thousand religious buildings were transferred to religious organizations (9.9% of the number of cultural objects that are religious monuments as of December 1995). According to Law 327, by 2018 about one thousand buildings will be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Thus, by 2018, about 80% of the surviving religious monuments nationalized during the Soviet period remained in the hands of the state.
Transferring Church Property before 2001 Articles 12 and 13 of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic of 20 January 1918, "On the Separation of Churches and School from Church", state the following "12. No church or religious society shall have the right to own property. They do not have the rights of a legal person. 13. All property of existing church and religious societies in Russia is declared to be the property of the people. The buildings and objects intended especially for liturgical purposes shall be given to the respective religious communities for free use by special decisions of the local or central state authorities".Текст (включая точную орфографию источника) — по официальной публикации в официальном органе СНК: Газета Рабочего и Крестьянского Правительства. — 23 January (5 February) 1918. — No. 15 (60). — P. 1.
After religious organizations in the USSR acquired the rights of a juridical person in accordance with the Law of the USSR dated 1 October 1990 "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", their rights to the property already used by them gratuitously remained the same; property rights arose only to the property newly created at their expense.
Some of the confiscated buildings were demolished, but many survived until the late 1980s. Most of those that survived were rebuilt and used as administrative buildings. Some religious buildings were turned into museums and placed under state protection as historical monuments. Many of the surviving religious buildings were in a dilapidated and damaged condition by the end of the 1980s. Reports on the inspection of former religious buildings by the Soviet authorities have survived. Thus, in 1985–1986, a survey of surviving religious buildings in the Tatar ASSR was conducted, which revealed more than 260 religious buildings (58 of which were under state protection as objects of history and religious architecture) that had fully or partially preserved their exterior appearance, which were divided into the following groups according to their technical condition:Фасихова М Мусульманские религиозные организации в РТ в 1960—1980–е годы // Ислам в советском и постсоветском пространстве: история и методологические аспекты исследования. Материалы Всероссийской конференции «Ислам в советском и постсоветском пространстве: формы выживания и бытования», Казань, май 2003 г. Составитель и редактор Р. М. Мухаметшин. — Казань: Институт истории Академии наук Республики Татарстан, 2004. — P. 86.
Good condition – 19 buildings; Satisfactory condition – 144 buildings; Emergency condition – 97 buildings (84 of which are vacant).
During Perestroika, the process of returning surviving religious buildings to believers was spontaneous: under pressure from believers, since the late 1980s local authorities have been handing over previously nationalized buildings. In some cases, individual representatives of clergy and believers resorted to protest actions to obtain the buildings. For example, the Orthodox community of Dalnerechensk (Primorsky Krai), which was registered in 1985, threatened the authorities to start a hunger strike on 1 February 1990, if they did not return the church building that had been taken away in 1929 and later given for a museum. Previously, the community had been repeatedly denied the return of the building (in 1988 and 1989). The threat on the eve of the elections of the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR (the elections were to be held on 4 March 1990) had an effect: on 26 January 1990, a meeting of the Primorsky Krai Executive Committee decided the issue in favor of the community of believers. On 9 July 1990 the building was handed over to the believers, and a week later it was consecrated. The director of the museum, located in the building of the temple, T. N. Guselnikova (since 1990 she was also a deputy of the Regional Council) went on hunger strike in protest against the closure of the museum, but the building remained with the believers.Поправко Е. А. Музей и церковь: проблемы взаимодействия (на примере ситуации Приморского края Российской Федерации) // Научные труды Северо-Западного института управления. — 2017. — V. 8. — No. 3 (30). — P. 181—183.
According to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 31 December 1991, No. 135-rp "On the Return of Buildings and Religious Literature to the Russian Orthodox Church",Распоряжение Президента Российской Федерации от 31 декабря 1991 г. No. 135-рп «О возвращении Русской Православной Церкви строений и религиозной литературы». Дата обращения: 26 December 2010. Archive: 5 March 2016. the building of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, together with its library of religious literature, was transferred to the ROC.
The Order of the President of the Russian Federation dated 23 April 1993 No. 281-rp "On the Transfer of Religious Buildings and Other Property to Religious Organizations"Распоряжение Президента Российской Федерации от 23 апреля 1993 г. No. 281-рп «О передаче религиозным организациям культовых зданий и иного имущества» (unavailable link) instructed the Russian Federation Government to prepare "a gradual transfer of religious buildings, structures and adjacent territories and other religious property in federal ownership to religious organizations for use for religious, educational, charitable and other statutory purposes related to the activities of confessions". At the same time, Decree No. 281-rp contained a mild reservation that the transfer should "take in mind, when possible, the interests of culture and science".Мартышин О. В. Государство и религия в постсоветской России (статья вторая) // Государство и право. — 2015. — No. 8. — P. 19.
On 14 March 1995, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 248 "On the Procedure of Transfer of State Religious Property to Religious Organizations".Постановление Правительства РФ от 14.03.1995 No. 248 «О порядке передачи религиозным организациям находящегося в федеральной собственности имущества религиозного назначения» It defined the general principles of transfer of religious property to ownership, use or joint use with cultural institutions. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation is responsible for transferring property related to historical and cultural monuments, the Federal Agency for State Property Management is responsible for other objects. The decision on the transfer is taken by the Government of the Russian Federation.
In 1995 there were 12107 religious monuments under state protection (the absolute majority – Orthodox), of which about a third (3743) were empty, according to the official data (letter of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation dated 15 December 1995).Осьмачко С. Г. Русская православная церковь и музейное сообщество в начале XXI века // Ярославский педагогический вестник. — 2014. — V. 1. — No. 3. — P. 79.
Among the religious objects transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1990s are the Donskoy Monastery, the Moscow State University. St.Tatiana Church, the Church of Saint Sergius in Rogozhskaya Sloboda in Moscow, and the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma.Наиболее заметные объекты недвижимости, переданные в собственность РПЦ МП (unavailable link) // Интернет-газета «Протестант»
In 1990s, also were cases of transferring of buildings to religious organizations to replace those confiscated and destroyed during the Soviet period. For example, in Yekaterinburg in the 1990s, the building of the Komsomolets Cinema (built during the Soviet period) was transferred to the Muslim community to replace the mosque destroyed during the Soviet period.Маулид ан-Наби в Екатеринбурге: Вспоминая о пророке Мухаммаде, мигранты вспоминают о родине (видео). Дата обращения: 5 October 2019. Archive: 11 September 2018. In 2012, the Abu Hanifa Mosque began to function in the transferred building. In 2022, the Ekaterinburg authorities officially approved the "religious use" of the land under the mosque.Мэрия Екатеринбурга разрешили реконструировать мечеть на улице Репина. Дата обращения: 29 August 2022. Archive: 29 August 2022.
At the same time, in the 1990s, regulations were adopted restricting the possibility of transfer of previously nationalized property to religious organizations. The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 14 March 1995, No. 248, completely prohibited the transfer to the ownership of religious organizations of historical and cultural monuments that are among the most valuable objects of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation. The Federal Law "On the Museum Fund and Museums in the Russian Federation", adopted in 1996, prohibits the transfer to religious organizations of movable religious objects from museum funds (icons, ecclesiastical objects and reliquaries with relics of saints).Растимешина Т. В. Усиление влияния церкви на сферу охраны культурного наследия // Власть. — 2011. — No. 12. — P. 34.
2000-s