Radicalization as a Factor of the First Russian Neo-Pagans’ Worldview Formation (1970–1980s)

Abstract

The article discusses the hypothesis of the emergence of Russian Neo-Paganism from right-wing conservative political Orthodoxy because of radicalization through the strengthening of its anti-Semitic component. Relationships and common elements of the worldview that united the first neo-pagan ideologues A.M. Ivanov (Skuratov), V.N. Emelyanov, A.A. Dobrovolsky and the Orthodox far right are traced. Based on some facts of their biographies, the article suggests the possible reasons for their radicalization and distancing from both Orthodox conservatives and liberal dissidents.

The main reason for the radicalization of the anti-Semitic discourse of the Neo-Pagans is its biologization, which partly continued the tradition of pre-revolutionary thought, but also introduced some ideas that stemmed from the ethnological primordialism that prevailed in Soviet scholarship. “Jewry” thus defined became an eternal and unchanging destructive force in history, and Christianity that arose in its midst became an instrument for the destruction of “Aryan” cultures.

The formation of the “image of the enemy” in the first neo-pagan ideologists’s works is considered in this article through the prism of Rene Girard’s concept of “texts of persecution”. Conclusions are drawn regarding their structure based on the mythological logic and the fundamental role in the formation of the neo-pagan worldview.