Slavic-Hill Rodnovery (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Славяно-Горицкое Родноверие) is one of the earliest branches of

Rodnovery The Slavic Native Faith, commonly known as Rodnovery and sometimes as Slavic Neopaganism, is a modern Paganism, modern Pagan religion. Classified as a new religious movement, its practitioners hearken back to the Slavic paganism, historica ...

(Slavic Native Faith) that emerged in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in the 1980s founded by Aleksandr Konstantinovich Belov (1957–), and one of the largest Rodnover movements in terms of number of practitioners, counted in the many tens of thousands. The movement is characterised by a military orientation, combining Rodnover worldview with the practice of a

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

style known as "Slavic-hill wrestling" (Славяно-горицкая борьба, ''Slavyano-goritskaya bor'ba''). The locution "Slavic hill" refers to the ''

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into mu ...

'',

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

warrior mound burials of the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...

History

The founder of the Slavic-Hill tradition of Rodnovery, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Belov (also Alex Beloff; Rodnover name: Selidor), was originally a

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

master, and in the 1970s and 1980s he began researching and reviving ancient Slavic martial techniques mixing them with elements of English

catch wrestling Catch wrestling (also known as catch-as-catch-can) is an English wrestling style where wrestlers aim to win by Pin (sport wrestling), pinning or Submission (combat sports), submitting their opponent using any legal holds or techniques. It emph ...

and other styles, codifying the practice in the book ''Slavic-Hill Wrestling'' and popularising it by founding, in 1986, the group of the Descendants of Svarog (Сварожичей-Триверов, ''Svarozhychey-Tryverov''), which in 1989 took part in the creation of the Moscow Slavic Pagan Community; in 1995 Belov left the group and the following year he established the Russian Federation of Slavic-Hill Wrestling, which was officially registered by the state in 2015 as the Association of Slavic-Hill Wrestling Fighters (Ассоциация Бойцов Славяно-Горицкой Борьбы). The original federation of Belov splintered many times over the years giving rise to other distinct groups of military Rodnovery; Belov, however, continued to remain a central figure for the movement as a whole. Outside of Russia, the movement has communities in Belarus, Bulgaria and Ukraine, and as a sport it is practised in other countries too. Together with a narrow circle of believers, Belov also experiments with an "inner energy" style of fighting based on folk magic.

Doctrine

Rather than as a "religion", Belov characterises the movement of Slavic-Hill Rodnovery as a man's "assimilation to the law of the universe", expressed in images and worship practices. The theology of Slavic-Hill Rodnovery is

pantheistic Pantheism can refer to a number of Philosophy, philosophical and Religion, religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arise ...

and

polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one Deity, god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, ...

, and the movement's military orientation is reflected in its pantheon, which gives prominence to military deities headed by

Perun In Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Perun () is the highest god of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, ir ...

, identified as the ruler of the universe. The liturgy is extremely simplified and the god of warriors, the thunderer, is worshipped through war totems (the animals falcon, kite, bear, wolf and lynx). The adherents believe that the class of the warriors should have the superior and leading role in society (espousing the idea of a military state and rejecting

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

), and should be always ready to sacrifice themselves for the community. The movement abhors moral decay, while emphasising discipline and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

values, and even though Belov's early works do not have a radical right-wing posture, many adherents espouse such position.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * ; Primary sources *

External links