Contemporary Russian anthropology and ethnography attentively monitor and reflect the ongoing revitalization and transformation of religious life in individual regions of the Russian Federation. The Congress held by the Association of Russian Ethnographers and Anthropologists on 4 - 8 July 2011 in Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia , reserved, among 1 450 contributions presented by 1 300 scholars, considerable space to the issue of both historical and contemporary religious cultures related to ethnic diversity of the country.