I was reading yet another piece about the war in Ukraine, and noted a reference that I did not recognise. It was stated that many of the senior officers in the Russian mercenary force PMC Wagner claim to be adherents of Rodnovery. Though I have read a number of books on Russia, that was longer ago than I would like to admit. ;) This Slavic neopaganism has apparently been around since the early/mid 20th century, but became more of a thing after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Wikipedia article is fairly extensive.
"Slavic Native Faith" |
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_Native_Faith)
QuoteThe scholar of religion Alexey Gaidukov has described "Slavic Neopaganism" as a term pertaining to "all quasi-religious, political, ideological and philosophical systems which are based on the reconstruction and construction of pre-Christian Slavic traditions". The scholar of religion Adrian Ivakhiv has defined Rodnovery as a movement which "harkens back to the pre-Christian beliefs and practices of ancient Slavic peoples", while according to the historian and ethnologist Victor A. Shnirelman, Rodnovers present themselves as "followers of some genuine pre-Christian Slavic, Russian or Slavic-Aryan Paganism".
[Continues . . . (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_Native_Faith)]
Fascinating.
Next, they'll be calling Western intervention a crusade against Paganism.
...The church of Satan is already to blame, if the local media's re-telling of Russian articles is to be believed. Makes an person wonder; unless you are willing to buy any justification, in which case you are probably equally-willing to buy no justification at all, you'll probably not buy this garbage. Forget skin-deep - it's so transparently bullshit as to be free-floating... Who is this more ridiculous sort of propaganda even for?