Governmental discrimination against religious minorities in the post-communist states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 1990–2023

This study examines patterns of governmental religious discrimination (GRD) against 182 religious minorities in 30 states and independent territories between 1990 and 2023 in the post-communist Eastern European and Central Asian (PCEECA) region using the Religion and State-Minorities round 4 (RASM4) dataset. Patterns of GRD and government religion policy in general transformed considerably during this period, following a shift from radical ideological secularism under communism to substantial economic, political, and social restructuring in the new post-Soviet space. We find several distinct patterns. First, although GRD rose over time, this was most pronounced in Orthodox majority states and those that were part of the Soviet Union. Second, minorities seen as foreign experience greater GRD than historically established groups. Finally, while multivariate analyses show that societal religious discrimination is an important predictor of GRD across the region, higher levels of government support for religion correlate with increasing GRD only in Orthodox-majority states. These analyses confirm the great extent to which patterns of GRD in the PCEECA region conform to those observed worldwide, while also demonstrating how social and political upheaval have characteristically exacerbated these trends.