One of the main starting points for the emergence of neo-paganism was the society's search for a national idea, which, among other things, can explain the increased interest in studying the origins of this type of religiosity.

At the same time, the roots of the pagan revival lie in the pre-revolutionary past of Russia – the works of A. Blok, K. Roerich, I. Stravinsky, studies of folk crafts, arts, and folklore.

The rejection of the suppression of the individual by modern technocratic society, as well as technological breakthroughs in the information sphere, and above all the Internet, have prompted researchers of folklore and people interested in the past of Russia to search for an alternative ideology based on national values. This was one of the reasons for the inevitable interest in the views of pre-Christian Russia.

In modern life, a person is required to be more independent and responsible when making decisions, as well as purposeful in their implementation. In such a situation, traditional religions, and above all Christianity, with its humility and submission, cannot cope with the satisfaction of the spiritual needs of a certain part of the population, which is actively searching for spiritual foundations that would sufficiently meet the challenges of modern times. On this basis, national neo-pagan beliefs began to develop.

Brief description of neo-paganism

Modern paganism is a complex worldview, which is based on the path of personal self-improvement using independent thinking. Adherents of rodnoveriya believe that the era of religions, as structured, hierarchical creeds, has passed, and the future-for the individual search for people themselves.

The world, according to neo-pagans, lives according to universal laws, in which there are no ideas of good or evil. Laws are extra-moral and have nothing to do with human morality and moralizing. But they have a "principle of expediency", i.e. following the path that is most convenient and least harmful.

The concept of "choice" is the key to ethics. The ethics of the pagan is, figuratively speaking, the "ethics of the electrician", which says "do not put your finger in the socket, not because it is unethical, but because it will kill". The idea of the law of cause and effect is the main postulate of faith. Every action entails both a subsequent new action and the reaction of the surrounding world.

Freedom in the neo-pagan sense is freedom of choice, the ability to follow or not follow universal laws. A few basic simple and logical postulates: "From strength and weakness – choose strength (otherwise you will perish!)", "from knowledge and ignorance – choose knowledge (otherwise you will be ignorant!)".

A special place in neo-pagan ideology is occupied by the cult of ancestors. Postulates an indissoluble connection between the ancestors and the living, it is believed that the spirits of the ancestors patronize their kind.

Most neo-pagans Express that view: "Our Ancestors went different ways. Whatever their faith, they have one thing in common: they have maintained the Great Thread of Life for centuries. There is no need to fully and unconditionally share their views and approve of their actions, but our Ancestors are as sacred as the givers of life. The best way to honor your ancestors is to always remember them, participate in the continuation of the family life, and strengthen your people. Do not tarnish the name of the fathers, leave a good memory of yourself in the descendants and after death enter the thousand-year-old Pantheon of ancestors."

Slavic neo-pagans say about their faith: "Our faith is natural, Vedic, pagan. The word "paganism" comes from the root "Yazyk", which in old Slavonic means "people, tribe". For example, " there will be a language on the language; Yes one h (Lowe)KB of omeret people. not wise language pogibnet; whiskey shatasha Xia Azizi; as PR(Oro)ka Bo azzeh polozaj unto thee". Thus, it is proposed to consider that "paganism" for the Slavs is, first of all, a folk, native, Slavic Pagan tradition. (Excerpts from the Founding document Of the international Association of followers of the pre-Christian Tradition, the circle of Pagan Tradition, founded in March 2002).

The main source of religious and philosophical views of neo-pagans was the "Veles book". The popularizers of this book were journalists and writers of Patriotic orientation (Igor Kobzev, Dmitry Zhukov, Valery Yemelyanov, Valery Skurlatov, Yuri Begunov, Alexander Asov, etc.). They also relied on the views of the first neo-pagans of the 70s of the twentieth century and their anti-Christian works, especially Anatoly Ivanov (Skuratov) "The secret of two beginnings" (1971) and "the Christian Plague" (1978), which have become iconic for modern rodnoverov. Also, a significant role in the formation of the worldview of modern neo-paganism was played by V. A. Istarkhov's book "Blow of the Russian gods", on the pages of which the author promotes ancient Slavic beliefs and criticizes Christianity, expressing thoughts about the fallacy of accepting this religion in Russia at the time.

Today, rodnoverie is not a frozen religious teaching with established canons and dogmas. This is a complex of religious and philosophical views, constantly developing along with the changing world, but based on ancient Russian spiritual foundations.

Despite some differences in the Pantheon of gods and views on the history of the old Slavic faith in pagan communities, the essence of neo-paganism is mainly formed and consists in the following:

The historical basis is the scientific hypothesis about the Exodus of the Indo-Europeans (Aryans) from their ancestral homeland of Daarii, due to a catastrophe of a planetary scale. They settled on the territory of modern Eurasia. Some of them reached India, where they passed on their beliefs and information about the history of civilization and scientific and technological achievements to the local population. After a number of subsequent migrations, the Indo-Europeans finally established themselves on the territory of modern Russia and Europe. During this period, some of the ancient knowledge was lost, and the religion changed and took a form known before the adoption of Christianity and somewhat different in each area. There are also supporters of paleocontact among neo-pagans, in particular, representatives of ingliism, which is one of the directions of Slavic neo-paganism.

In the 90s, our history was covered in an unsightly light. A Patriotic person could not believe that the history of our people has always been so dark, and therefore sought alternative knowledge. When official media and some historical textbooks said that "Russia is a prison of peoples" and "the Russian people are a slave people", a person wanted to see a different, even semi-mythical history, that long ago his ancestors were great, strong and powerful. Naturally, any person likes such a story much more, they want to rely on it and be proud of it.

It is no secret that history is often misrepresented by Russia's enemies in order to show that the Russian people do not exist, that their history is a history of constant mistakes and crimes. Naturally, those who do not want to put up with such an imposed "reality" will necessarily look for alternative views on history.

The religious basis was the doctrine of the "Right faith", which consists in the triad "Rule-Nav-Yav".

"Rule" is one of the basic concepts of Slavic philosophy. It is understood as a universal law established by God, according to which the world exists. This concept is similar to "sattva" in Indian philosophy (clarity, absolute reality, harmony). "Rule" is the truth, the laws that govern reality, the highest ethical principles.

"Rule", in the understanding of the Slavs of the V-VI centuries, was the Supreme ruler of the entire universe, including human destiny. "Rule" represents the divine, ruling world, is a symbol of wisdom, justice, legality and divine power. "Rule" is the law established by the Family, hence "life by Rule", hence "Rule". "Rule" is a harmonious combination of the path to the future and preserving the traditions of the past.

"Reality" – the light force that controls the world, and at the same time this light world itself,"White light". It corresponds to "Yang" in Eastern philosophy. "Reality" – the earthly, material world. "Reality" – life. "Yav" – progress. Opposed To "Navi".

"Nav" – the dark force that controls the world, at the same time the afterlife, "That light". It corresponds to a philosophical concept similar to the concept of "Yin" in Eastern philosophy. "Nav" – the ancestral world, the other world. "Nav" – memory of the past.

Sometimes the triad "rule" – " Yav " – " Nav "is also added "Slav".

"Slav" – this is the world of the gods, where the ancestors of the Slavs sought to get, subconsciously remembering that Rusichi-children of the Gods. To glorify is to remember the ancestors and gods (the Slavs had minor gods who were ordinary people, famous for just deeds), and "rule" is the way of a person to the world of "Slav".

The ideological basis of rodnoveriya is the life-affirming principle: "We, Rusichi – are not slaves, but children of our Gods and our Land. We honor the gods as the eldest of our kind, not by groveling before them, but by proving by deeds that we are worthy to be their heirs." This differs significantly from the principle of the "mosaic" religions, where the hierarchy of "God-man", "master-slave", from the point of view of neo-pagans, is hardly useful for revealing the spiritual and physical abilities of a person.

Neo-paganism is considered a polytheistic belief, but it combines monotheism and polytheism. ROD – is revered as a single God, and at the same time it is multi-faceted: all Native Gods – its faces, its manifestations. This structure is called by neo-pagans Rodobozhie. The gods represent various forces in nature and in man, and the Race is something nameless, indescribable that generates and embraces all these forces, remaining greater than them.

According to neo-pagans, the false "Age of Pisces" in the XXI century is replaced by the "Age of Aquarius". As a result of this change of epochs, a new worldview will prevail, corresponding to the principles of Slavic neo-paganism.

At the moment, two main cults have been formed – Perun (military) and Veles (mystical and philosophical).

The cult of Perun – the God of warriors is associated with the appearance of Slavic martial arts – "martial arts". A. Belov (Selidor), a philologist by training, became the founder of the connection between rodnoveriya and martial arts. It was he who developed the complex of Slavic-Goritsky wrestling, based on the Slavic worldview, as a counterweight to Eastern martial arts with their Eastern ideology.

Martial art

In our time, Slavic martial arts – "ratoborstva", formed as a kind of identification sign of the movement of neo-pagans. The de facto leader of this stage (in addition to others in the Accounting, the Fierce, Bear) was Alexander Belov (Selidor). It was Selidor who developed the complex of the Slavic-Goritsky struggle, which became a certain symbol of the modern neo-pagan movement.

Slavo-Goritsky wrestling, in contrast to Eastern martial arts, is based on a different worldview and a slightly different technique for building combat movements.

Belov became interested in Slavic martial arts after practicing karate, which was fashionable in the late 70s. At the same time, he was interested in the question of the existence of a similar system in Russia. With the help of the ethnographer B. V. Gorbunov, a specialist in ritual folk wrestling, who provided Belov with information about the preserved customs, largely relying on which, he developed a system of Slavic-Goritsky wrestling. The first publications about the recreated system appeared in 85-86 (in the magazine "Club"), their appearance became a sensation at that time. At the same time, Belov organized the "national club of old Russian martial arts", which until the mid-90s was the main and actually the only center of the Slavic-Goritsky wrestling. The name" Slavo-Goritsky wrestling" was coined by Belov from the word "Goritsa" – "Kurgan", where ritual duels were held on the Trizna in memory of the deceased. The nature of these duels, according to Belov, was not competitive, but competitive, i.e. the meaning of the match was not to win, but to demonstrate strength and prowess. On the basis of Belov's ethnographic expeditions and readers ' reviews of publications, the main principle of struggle was developed-active movement, simultaneously with the active use of knee and elbow joints. At the same time, the fighting technique is based on improvisation – in the Slavic-Goritsky wrestling there is no concept of "stand", many wrestlers call it simply "Russian fight", without numerous preconditions, competitive standards.

The following main types of styles of Slavic-Goritsky wrestling can be distinguished:

- "Velesova borotba" (velesova wrestling), a kind of analog of Greco-Roman wrestling; stenoshnaya wrestling (wall-to-wall);

- Hunter's battle-active movement around the enemy, attack on the jump;

- Hand-to-hand combat – with cold weapons.

By 1996, according to various surveys, from 10 to 40 thousand people were engaged in Slavic-Goritsky wrestling, but not all of them were pagans, and a significant part perceived wrestling only as one of the types of martial arts.

In 1998-1997, Belov founded the "world League of Slavic-Goritsky wrestling", sharply narrowing the circle of its participants, by his own admission, to 200 people (however, according to other sources, their number does not exceed 50 people). The rest of the movement split into many clubs. The main cult of such clubs was the cult of Perun-the God of warriors. It was circles close to Belov that formed the first pagan Slavic communities in the province. The spread of the school of martial arts in Russia was the actual spread of paganism. At this stage, many interested in a new type of martial arts gradually converted to paganism. If earlier groups-communities were mainly in large cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, which was caused by a large number of researchers of folk culture, at this stage paganism actually spread throughout the country and became a fact of social and religious life.

Due to the growing popularity of the new type of martial arts, its fairly clear religious coloring, the authority of Belov himself grew sharply and at this stage began to embody the movement as a whole, although Belov was the head of only his community, although at that time the largest in the country.

At the present stage it is possible to note Maxim created by Shatunova (Ladislava) in Saratov Federation of Russian martial combined events (RMCE). According to the Creator, this is a modern Russian martial art, which has formed a competitive program of the sports eight-man event.

The fight consists of three parts. The first two-minute contest is held according to the rules of Russian folk belt wrestling. After a minute break, the second two-minute contest is held according to the rules of Russian folk wrestling "on the gate", where only a mutual equivalent one-hand grip on the gate is allowed, which must be kept until the end of the episode of the fight. The third round is held according to free rules. Painful techniques for all large joints, suffocating techniques performed with hands and clothing, and any safe throws are allowed. This competitive discipline has received the name of the great struggle

This type of combat, which combines the traditions and techniques of Russian fist and hand-to-hand combat with the techniques of fighting that existed in Russia, was called assault combat.

Fighters conduct mostly simultaneous offensive actions, observing the rule of counter-combat. Moreover, the actions are carried out with the utmost speed, because the time of one con is only 20 seconds. There are only eight such kons, with twenty-second rest breaks between them. Thus, we get a modern fusion of shock and throwing techniques performed with extreme density.

The RMCE sports eight-man event also features bayonet fencing, stick fencing, and knife fencing.

One of the main components of the RMCE ideology was Slavic paganism. Shatunov believes that the RMCE was created for the bearers of ethnically oriented consciousness and is based on the ideas developed since the Aryan community of European peoples, and the spiritual baggage of ancient sacred sources: the Avesta, Rigveda, Russian epics. According to the author, the very idea of sports competitions is deeply pagan and has no relation to the one-sided world religions of middle Eastern and Eastern origin.

The Creator of RMCE came to Russian martial arts through Boxing and Eastern martial arts. Realizing that they have a national identity, I began searching for Russian martial arts. The questions that arose were partly resolved by publications of the late 80's of the XX century published in the magazines "Science and religion", "Sports life of Russia", "Club", "Young Communist", the author of which was the founder of the Slavic-Goritsky struggle A. Belov. Having passed a course for instructors in Slavic-Goritsky wrestling, Shatunov actively developed this martial art from 1994 to 1998. In the course of martial arts he wrote several books: "Russian professional fight", "Common Russian", "Russian military exercises", "Russian fist fighting, Russian fight feet", "The Great controversy".  He also released a series of educational films, where he added the technique of bayonet and stick fighting to the material described in the books.

Over time, the author became closely involved in the Slavonic-Goritsky struggle, and he began to develop his own concept of Russian martial arts, based on the ideology of kinship, which resulted in the creation of the RMCE.

Other schools of Slavic martial arts include Buza and skobar. Buza was founded by Grigory Bazlov, a professional ethnographer, and is based on the tradition of village kulak artels in the North-West of Russia and, according to Bazlov, the fighting system of the family of Prince Boris Golitsyn. Today, Buza is a system, on the one hand, traditional, on the other – synthesized. It does not explicitly rely on paganism, but since fistfights were never supported by Christianity, the spiritual basis of Buza lies precisely in paganism.

St. Petersburg skobar, founded by Vadim Gruntovsky, is a synthesis of reconstructions of pre-Christian military traditions and the system of training military scouts.

Ukrainian national martial arts are also mythologized and oriented towards paganism, often with external Christian attributes. So, according to the founder of the system Saved Leonid Bezklubogo, he learned this martial art from his grandfather, who received it from his ancestors – Ukrainian Cossacks. However, there are studies that prove that some of the initial knowledge he received from his own uncle, who served during The Great Patriotic war in the NKVD unit SMERSH.

The ideals of "neo-paganism" with their active position in many ways appeal to today's active youth and attract representatives of various martial arts. Many people left the martial arts in Russian styles because of cultural incompatibility: we are an Orthodox civilization, and karate is closely related to Zen Buddhism, Wushu-with Taoism. Those who have not found support in Orthodox Christianity inevitably find themselves in the spiritual space of neo-pagans.

Neo-paganism itself, with the military cult of Perun, supports sports and martial arts. Classes in wrestling, Boxing, and combat systems based on rational scientific concepts and based on modern army training schools are quite harmoniously combined with the "neo-pagan" worldview.

Criticism of rodnovery. 

Let's make a reservation in advance, we deliberately avoid theological disputes and do not consider the truth or falsity of the divine messages of rodnoveria.  We are interested in the practical benefits or harms of this religious and philosophical system.

In various strata of society, as well as religious and public organizations, there is no unambiguous attitude to rodnoverie. The criticism that is contained in attacks on this religious and philosophical system is often constructive and has common sense, and this is why:

– All these philosophical speculations are designed for a fairly independent and active part of people, but there are a large number of those who are not ready for such independence, do not want to be responsible for their thoughts and actions, or are not accustomed to independent decisions. It is easier and easier for such people to live in the bosom of established religions that give comfort to the "humiliated and offended". These people make up a significant part of our society, but the family faith is not directed to work with them.

– Another weak point in rodnoverie is the lack of a unified control and clear hierarchy. If the main religions have a well-established system of management, financing, a large amount of real estate, as well as experience in building relationships with the authorities, then scattered kindred communities do not have such experience. Their representatives sometimes stand on pronounced Patriotic positions and support the government, or they are in the opposition, criticizing the power structures about and without.

– Another weak point in rodnoveria is the concept that we are children of our gods and the relationship of the Slavs with their gods is a kinship relationship. For some representatives of Slavic nationalities, this is acceptable and pleasant, but we are a multi-ethnic country. We are not sure that this position will appeal to representatives of non-Slavic nationalities. They, in turn, will remember their "native gods", with whom they will build a "special relationship". All this is a way to discord on religious grounds. By the way, in Christianity, too, there is a concept of "God-chosen people", but we have learned to play this topic correctly, at least by the fact that the Savior brought salvation to all peoples by his death and subsequent resurrection. In Islam, Allah was originally the ancestral God of the Meccan Quraysh, but again, according to the Qur'an, he promises equal rights and equal treatment to all who believe in him. So, if the leaders of Slavic neo-paganism have claims to a more comprehensive nature of their movement and count on the support of non-Slavic Russians, they will have to work on improving the neo-pagan concept.

– There are no confirmed ancient writings, or any other documentary sources that could be used as the basis for religious and philosophical teaching. Most linguists consider the Veles book to be a forgery, and the history of its discovery and subsequent publication is very murky. "Slavo-Aryan Vedas", as well as "All-World Literature" do not stand up to any criticism at all. So Christianity with its Bible or Islam with the Koran as religions with ancient sources look more convincing.

- The possibility of justifying hatred of foreigners or followers of other religions by declaring themselves "Aryans" and "bearers of truth" (sometimes in the last instance) provide material for the ideological base of neo-fascists. The official ideology of Hitler's Germany was openly based on occultism and neo-pagan cults. It was from the pagan basis of Hitler's Germany that the theme of national humiliation of the "non-Aryan" population grew. Thus, there is a danger of joining the rodnoverie and uniting on its basis fascist elements and radical nationalists.

- Neo-paganism in General and rodnoverie in particular give ground for" Maidan " sentiments. Western intelligence agencies have long seen this potential. If radical Islam serves as a destabilizing force for Muslim countries, it does not work in the Christian world. But some neo-pagan principles are very suitable for internal Subversion. For example, the clash of pagan nationalists with Muslims can be an effective detonator for the destabilization of society in the scenario of color revolutions.

- The cult of strength and masculinity, characteristic of paganism, contributes to the desire of the youth part of the neo-pagan audience to engage in martial arts, shooting training and improving applied military skills. This in itself is not dangerous, but with the skillful manipulation of young people who thoughtlessly adhere to this religious and philosophical trend, you can make blind force and "cannon fodder" in the hands of extremists and radicals. A clear example of today is the Ukrainian volunteer battalions, recruited from nationalists who often adhere to neo-pagan views.