Shnirelman V. Russkoe rodnoverie [Russian rodnoverie]. Neoyazychestvo i nationalizm v sovremennoi Rossii [Neo-paganism and Nationalism in Modern Russia], Moscow: Publishing House of the Biblical and Theological Institute, 2012, 302 p.

This is a new work by a well-known author who, since the early 1990s, has been a pioneer in exploring a wide range of topics related to Russian nationalism, anti-Semitism, and the invention of new ethnic religions in the post-Soviet era. The construction of Russian neo-paganism was always, among other topics, in the center of his attention. The book under review is a continuation and development of some of the previous works7. It includes new and fresh materials that allow us to systematically and consistently present the history of neo-pagan discourse and its institutional vicissitudes, starting from the late Soviet period, and bring these subjects to the beginning of the 2010s.

The work is populated by countless characters who somehow associate themselves with rodnoverie - Russian neo-paganism; it is filled with the names of magazines, books, organizations, dates and events. We are presented with a diverse, fragmented picture of all possible variations of Russian neo-paganism, a scrupulous picture.

Shnirelman V. 7. Neo-paganism and nationalism. Eastern European area. Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, 1998; Shnirelman V. Perun, Svarog and others: Russkoe neozyestvo v poiskakh samo//Neo-paganism in the vast expanses of Eurasia. Edited by V. Shnirelman. Moscow: Bibleisko-Bogoslovskiy institut, 2001, pp. 10-38; Shnirelman V. Russian Neopagan Myths and Antisemitism. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1998.

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documented and factually verified information. It must be admitted that with all the advantages of such microscopic accuracy, the presentation sometimes becomes - precisely because of its documentary redundancy-difficult to digest for the reader, and despite the narrative efforts and recognizably author's, (moderately) emotional style of V. Shnirelman, in some places the text almost approaches reference rather than analytical. by genre. Factuality is, of course, due to the author's unwillingness to sacrifice the abundance of information collected and systematized with such care over many years of work; at the same time, this very abundance leads to the fact that the reader - even more or less specially trained - is sometimes lost in the mazes and intricacies of the material.

Still, it must be emphatically acknowledged that this is the most comprehensive book on rodnoveriya ever published; from a brief review of the current literature (in chapter 2), it is clear that this work stands out as the most important one in the current knowledge of the subject.

In the course of the presentation, Shnirelman makes subtle and precise observations, all of which cannot be mentioned here.

I would like to highlight, in this sense, the most interesting insights about the "Soviet" roots of neo-paganism, which go back to an incredible mixture of a long series of seemingly completely different phenomena. This includes banned samizdat literature like Slovo Natsii (1970); patriotic fascination with historical memory (through the "protection of monuments"); a semi-hidden nationalist component of the post-Soviet ruling establishment; and science fiction published in millions of copies, turning into ethnocentrically charged fantasy and adjacent to "patriotic novels" (p. Proskurin, D. Zhukov, S. Alekseev, Yu. Sergeev, and others); this is a reduced historical "education", claiming to be scientific; this, finally, is banal background, half-openly encouraged anti-Semitism.

It perfectly shows how neo-pagan mythology and ideology mature in such different environments as the Znanie Society and Yu's circle. Mamleev and the Pamyat Society (Chapter 7); then we trace the ideological paths of those whom the author calls the" founding fathers "of rodnoveriya - V. Yemelyanov, A. Ivanov (Skuratov), A. Dobrovolsky (who"converted" to paganism under the name of Dobroslav) and others.-

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among others (Chapter 8). Shnirelman very subtly reveals the dual role of Soviet party circles and the ideological apparatus in relation to ethnocentric patriotism: one hand encouraged what the other crushed, and neo-pagan discourse teetered on the edge between dissidence and unofficial favor of the authorities.

In the end, the author associates the entire late-Soviet project to introduce socialist rituals and revive folk-supposedly atheistic-rites instead of religious ones, starting in the second half of the 1950s, with support for paganism "in the highest echelons of power" (pp. 97-98). This seems somewhat exaggerated, since the idea of "socialist ritualism" had its own logic, unless, of course, we use the metaphor "new paganism" in relation to the entire Soviet ideology.8 Perhaps there is a grain of truth in the author's statement that" rejoicing in honor of nature " was considered less dangerous by a Soviet official than worshipping Christ and the Mother of God (p.99).However, it would be incorrect to say that patriotic party hierarchs gave exclusive preference to paganism: Russian Orthodoxy and the Orthodox heritage - provided they are read in a non-religious way-have, for some time, been more or less relied upon as the center of Russianness, Russian cultural memory, and as the basis of ethnic myth; there was also a corresponding, well-known fiction, its own propagandist media, and even its own Orthodox (and not just pagan)language anti-Semitism.

Nevertheless, V. Shnirelman in general accurately reveals the "Soviet roots of paganism". As the author methodically shows, the explosive mixture described by him forms a whole series of ethno-racial myths that slowly mature in the Soviet semi-underground and then "explode" in full force in the 1990s, immediately after the removal of hypocritical ideological half-bans.

The author calls the main mythologeme professed by the early and later leaders of the Rodnoverians an "Aryan-Slavic myth", around which all Russian neo-pagan constructions are built later, and up to this day. This myth is about the Slavic Aryan birthright, about the true Russian pre-Christian origins, about the alienness of the " Semite-

8. See some articles in this issue devoted to socialist ritualism, especially articles by E. Zhidkova, V. Smolkin-Rothrock, N. Shlichty and a number of others.

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Russian influences" (including Christianity), about the life - giving power of rodnoveriya - "native faith", Nature, Kind. This dominant feature of neo-paganism, as the author shows, is naturally translated into political assessments, programs and actions - up to calls for ethnic purity, and therefore for ethnic cleansing ("Russia for Russians!"); which means, in the extreme version, leads to neo - Nazism in the form of a skinhead movement. This logic in the book builds up by itself, the composition of the book leads to it, and it is no coincidence that the last chapter is called "From ideology to street violence".

And here we enter the area of conceptual distinctions, which should be discussed in more detail. Schnirelman is most interested in this ethnocentric, ideopolitical, I would say, muscular and muscular component of rodnoveriya, which, when extrapolated, is always fraught with racism and anti-Semitism. It is here, from the author's point of view, that the main core of Russian neo-paganism is found. At first glance, it seems that there is some one-sidedness here.

However, such a campaign is a completely conscious position of the author. He is well aware that this mentioned ideological component does not exhaust the content of the phenomenon. Shnirelman clearly outlines the scope of his interests in the preface: "first, to give a general idea of the history of the Russian neo-pagan movement, and secondly, to analyze the issue of tolerance/intolerance in its ranks" (p.xiii). It further stipulates that "neo-pagan myths, beliefs, rituals, community life, and gender relations are not considered here. All these are special independent topics that require special discussion" (p. xiv). By outlining the clear framework of his scientific interest, Shnirelman thus accurately identifies the areas in which future research on Russian neo-paganism can develop in the future.: this is a very wide and untilled field, when compared with the vast amount of literature devoted to similar phenomena in the West (studies of neo-paganism).

We will leave these subjects to future researchers, noting that without a deep analysis of them, it is still impossible to fully understand neo-paganism as part of a broader, ecological paradigm within modern post-industrial culture, its romantic origins and its constructivist mechanisms. Let us turn to the aspect of the topic that V. Shnirelman considers for himself

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the main one. The author devotes a large chapter to" the search for spirituality " in Russian neo-paganism (chapter 15), where he addresses in detail those forms of this phenomenon that are not directly related to ethnomythology and politics. The author pays tribute to the "peaceful ""search for spirituality", but even in them he finds "latent racism and anti-Semitism" (p. 20z). At the same time, Schnirelman emphasizes the differences between more or less tolerant (more or less xenophobic) associations. For example, the Circle of Pagan Traditions-KYAT-is a very influential network of communities, documents (manifestos) which attest to its anti-globalist and anti-Sumerist dominance, as well as its clear rejection of the idea of ethno-racial superiority and anti-Semitism (pp. 225-235). The author also mentions other movements that he calls "moderate" - in particular, those who participate in the World Congresses of Ethnic Religions (starting with the first such congress in Vilnius in 1998).

In conclusion, the author strikes a careful balance of xenophobia/ tolerance of various native religious trends and groups. It seems that he is somewhat hesitant in his final assessment, trying to be careful. He notes that Russian ethnocentrism is somehow-and perhaps inevitably-characteristic of the vast majority of groups, and neo-Pagans often do not have "clear answers" to the question of the role of 20% of the non-Russian population in Russia; worse, however, if such "clear answers" are available - in this case, these answers are reduced to "carrying out certain ethnic cleansing" (p. 251). More militant groups attract radical youth. Still, how central or marginal is this trend? Here Shnirelman introduces a careful formula, full of academic tact: he writes that "the negative trends that were analyzed in this work do not follow from the essence of neo-paganism itself, but are due to the state of modern Russian society as a whole, namely, the dominance of xenophobic sentiments in it" (p.253).And then he adds that, although there are no such accurate studies that would allow calculating the ratio of "tolerant" and "intolerant" in this environment, it can be argued that if we proceed from the analysis of printed sources (on which the whole work is based), "the carriers of the racial type of thinking with its characteristic chauvinism and xenophobia predominate.""(ibid.).

In my opinion, these are quite balanced and reliable rasus-

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waiting list: they link the phenomenon to the social context as a whole, thereby helping to explain the peculiarities of Russian neo-paganism in comparison with its Western counterparts; they also link conclusions to a certain range of sources that can be used. The ethno-racial consciousness and political radicalism of the most active and, so to speak, "media-expressed" Rodnovers are really striking, and Shnirelman's book provides complete and convincing confirmation of this. A larger picture of other versions of neo-paganism will require a broader research program, which is indicated in the book itself.

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