The New Age of Russia

Occult and Esoteric Dimensions. Edited by Birgit Menzel, Michael Hagemeister and Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal.

18 contributions address the topics: Prerevolutionary Roots and Early Soviet Manifestations; Manifestations in the Soviet Period (1930-1985); The Occult Revival in Late and Post Soviet Russia; Comparative Aspects, Continuity and Change. Occult and esoteric ideas became deeply embedded in Russian culture long before the Bolshevik Revolution. After the Revolution, occult ideas were manifested in literature, the humanities and the sciences as well. Although the Soviet government discouraged and eventually prohibited metaphysical speculation, that same government used the Occult for its own purposes and even funded research on it. In Stalin's time, occultism disappeared from public view, but it revived clandestinely in the post-Stalin Thaw and became a truly popular phenomenon in post-Soviet Russia. From cosmism to shamanism, from space exploration to Kabbalah, from neo-paganism to science fiction, the field is wide. 448 Seiten mit 13 Farb- und s/w-Abb., gebunden (Studies on Language and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe; Band 17/Verlag Otto Sagner 2011) leichte Lagerspuren/near mint