Another Prav book. Shinzhensky wrote an academic book about Slavic paganism “between ideas and practice” in Russian and Prav director Jafe Arnold translated it to English, so that also the non-Russian-speaking audience can learn about the current state of academic interest in “Rodnoverie”.
The book is fairly dry and academic, especially towards the end. Sure, you will learn about the many different heathen groups in Russia, their founders, their histories, some of their ideas, their sizes and celebrations, but often academics seem to be more interested in statistics. How many attendees of a “Kupala” festival see which God as their main God? How many are members of other groups than the organising party? How do they explain certain terms?
Shinzhensky often summarises the findings of colleagues, refers to all kinds of academic inquiries, but he also sifted through the sometimes voluminous bibliographies of some of the big names of the “Rus” scene. You get histories, learn about umbrella organisations (the World Congress of Ethnic Religions is frequently mentioned) and not just in contemporary Russia, but also in countries such as Lithuania and Baltic countries.
What annoys me a bit is that (this is the same in other Prav books btw.) the author quite forcibly tries to avoid using the same words too often, so when a chapter is about a certain person, he is one time mentioned by name, then a “our author” (or some similar term), “Volkhv”, but also a word such as “polytheist” is often used, while it is clear that not all pagans are polytheists. Also the term “proselyte” is used too often in my opinion.
All in all the book gives a nice look into (larger) Russian paganism. It is interesting to see how many things are similar to Western countries, while other things are much different. The book is not a handbook to learn about “Rodnoverie” from, but if you are interested in an academic approach of the ‘scene’, this book might be of interest.
2021 Prav Publishing, isbn 1952671094
