In the modern era, the need has ripened for the study of ―other‖ religions, which were regarded as a part of general culture of mankind, which can be studied on the basis of scientific methods. In European universities, at the intersection of comparative theology, history, ethnography and linguistics, the science of religion, discerned as a description of ―other‖ religions, was disciplined. Changes in the religious situation after 1907, as well as the spreading of the historical and critical method in studying religious texts and new anthropological theories, contributed to the development of the science of religion in Russia. By 1917, there had been two directions in the study of religion in Russian academic discourse: one of them was religious and apologetic, related to the theological tradition, and another was an actively developing scientific trend based on evolutionism and historical criticism of written sources while sociological theories of religion, including Marxism, became more and more attractive.