Neopaganism in modern Russia: a historical and philosophical analysis

The article presents a historical and philosophical analysis of neopaganism in modern Russia. We have traced the incorporation of neopagan ideas in the changed political and sociocultural environment of post-Soviet Russia. The foundation of the neopagan worldview is the pre-Christian pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs, based on the preserved historical data, their own religious ideas borrowed from modern occultism and the beliefs of other peoples. We have concluded that neopagans claim "ethnic purity", which is meant to withstand the relativistic and culturally destructive influences of similar foreign trends. The interests of neopagans in addition to various feast days and ceremonies involve folk magic, which is widespread even among practicing Christians; and a borderland between occultism, magic, parapsychology and religion is much more blurred than it actually is in many Western countries. This cultural continuity is Russia’s unique feature. Neopaganism responds to the needs for archaic thinking, reconstruction of patrimonial ties, magic, ecology and new identity against the background of present global problems and globalization processes.