New religious and religious-oriented ecological movements in the Omsk region: preliminary results of ethnographic study

The results of innovative research of the religious communities belonging to the so-called new religious movements (NRM) are provided in the article. The work was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, a strong sacred center formed during the last quarter of a century around the Okunevo village, Muromtsevsky district, Omsk region, was studied. Neo-Hindu type religious-cultural organizations Babaji followers (Shaivites), Hare Krishna followers as well as communities whose ideology is based on the invention of the “ancient Slavic” traditions has the greatest influence here. A description of the Okunevo sacred space, as well as ceremonies and holidays organized by the various religious group members is presented. At the second stage, an ethnographic research of eco-villages and communities formed in the territory of the Omsk region was conducted. They are divided into three groups: 1) settlements based on the ideas of inventions of the “ancient Slavic” religion and environmental ethics; 2) settlements of ancestral estates based on “Ringing Cedars of Russia” ideology widely spread in Russia NRM, also known as the Anastasians; 3) neo-Hindu settlements created on the ideological principles of Krishnaism-Vaishnavism. The concept of the new sacred spaces chronotope is considered. Its basis is often formed by archaeological objects, which are exposed to sacralization and mythologization. A popular etiological myth about the ancient great city in the site of the current city of Omsk is analyzed. Psychological frustration due to the loss by the Russian regions offormer economic and cultural significance, the centralization and concentration of all cultural and economic resources almost only in the capitals of Russia is a social basis of such motives.