The Occult in Modern Russian and Soviet Culture 
AUTHOR: Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal 
https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1993-806-03-Rosenthal.pdf
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH

CONTENTS
Summary
Introduction 1
Occult as Symptom of Social and Cultural Stress 2
The Occult in Late Imperial Russia 4
Background 4
The Russian Fin de Siecle 7
Occultism in the Early Soviet Period 1 3
Stalinist Assimilation of the Occult 1 7
The Current Scene 1 8
Summary of Conference Papers 24
Annex I 28
Summary
"Occult" means that which is covered or hidden . The term applies to a wide variety
of doctrines and practices, ranging from elaborate belief systems such as Theosophy an d
Anthroposophy to sorcery, witchcraft, and a wide-range of divinatory practices (astrology ,
palm-reading tarot cards, et . al), and from the seances of the Spiritualists to the orgiasti c
rituals of certain sectarian cults. Occultism comes to the fore in times of social stress,
cultural confusion, and religious uncertainty .

The occult revival of late 19th and early 20th century Russia was a response to th e
fading credibility of the Russian Orthodox Church, the spiritual/psychological inadequacy of
intelligentsia ideologies, the destabilizing effects of rapid industrialization, and continue d
political upheaval. Interest in the occult cut across political divisions and class lines, but ha d
a special appeal to women . Sophisticated doctrines coexisted, often in the same persons ,
with ideas or practices taken from Kabbala, Buddhism, Yoga, Siberian shamanism, an d
practices of the mystical sectarians, and folk beliefs, often taken from the pagan Slavs, in
magic and "spoiling . "

Occult doctrines influenced the art and thought of late Imperial Russia . Symbolist
writers and painters of the era held that there was another higher world which only the artist ,with his/her special powers, could perceive . Cubo-futurist and suprematist painters belui that geometric and abstract forms constituted the authentic reality hidden beneath or beyond the illusions of empirical reality . Occult emphasis on mind-body interaction ,
parapsychology, and hypnotism helped set the agenda for the new science of psychology .

Occultism blended with apocalypticism, and with radical political doctrines which preached
the dissolution of the (egoistic) self in a larger macrocosmic Self . On the right, all sorts of
demonic conspiracies were attributed to Jews and freemasons . " Occultism reached the
highest circles of the Imperial Court; Rasputin was but the tip of an ice-berg .
Occultism was an element in Soviet culture as well. The line between magic and
science disappeared in the utopianism of the early Soviet period . 

Hopes formerly invested inreligion and magic were transferred to technology and science . Stalinist political culture utilized ideas taken from the occult elements in its attempt to influence the masses . Stalin' s name assumed incantational significance .
Contemporary Russian occultism is fueled by destalinization, the collapse o f
communism, and the resulting spiritual/cultural confusion and economic chaos . There are
marked parallels to the New Age Movement in the West, but on the far right, a occul t
variant of Russian messianism, seems to be developing .