Post-Soviet religious resurgence tracked whether democracy or corruption replaced communism.

Evidence

There are complex issues at play here—for example, following the fall of the Soviet Union, religion resurged in Russia, but declined further in the former East Germany and the Czech Republic. No doubt, one key factor was that Russians felt a dramatic decline in living standards with the fall of the Soviet Union, whereas Czechs and East Germans saw a gain in living standards. Moreover, in Russia, communism was replaced by yet another totalitarian, corrupt system. In Central European states that merged with the European Union, it was replaced with democracy. As we have seen before, cultural evolution, under the proper conditions, can stabilize any “cultural equilibrium,” including dysfunctional systems that benefit a few people or no one. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 557