DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2018.3.26202

Abstract: The subject of historical analysis in this article is the topic of the hierarchy of Old Russian ministers of pagan cults, which is a virtually unstudied topic by Russian scholars. Based on archaeological sources, ancient Russian chronicles and texts of Ibn Fadlan, the author sequentially analyzes the features of the hierarchy of pagan cult ministers of small clan temples, hillforts-sanctuaries, and urban sacral centers. The author dedicates particular attention to the question of the place and role of Old Russian princes and close to them representatives of the military elite in the religious life of the ancient Russian state. The study highlights the characteristic features of the pagan cult in ancient Russian cities, in particular, the unique system of priestly hierarchy in which the dominant position was occupied by local prince-rulers and their closest circle of local military elite. Upon writing this article, the author used the historical-comparative, problem-thematic and historical-analytical methods of scientific research. In this study, for the first time in Russian historical science, a comprehensive analysis of the hierarchical system of Eastern Slavic ministers of pagan cults is presented. The conducted historical analysis allowed the author to come to the conclusion that in the pre-Christian era the Eastern Slavic pagan cult ministers had a complex hierarchical system. All the Eastern Slavic sanctuaries from small temples located on the outskirts of rural settlements to large hillforts-sanctuaries were served by hierarchically organized professional priests. The pagan cult ministers were united in priestly clans led by the high priests of the most revered shrines in Ancient Rus.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2016.3.19551

Abstract: The subject of the article’s historical analysis is the anti-Christian movement of the Slavic population in the Dniester region at the end of the 10th–second half of the 12th centuries. The study points to the fact that the Carpatho-Dniester region had played the role of the sacred centre of pre-Christian Russia. The author undertook a historical reconstruction of the events related to the confrontation between the Eastern Slavonic tribal unions and the central Kiev government during the religious reforms of the princes Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav the Wise. The article presents an analysis of the anti-Christian movement among the population of Western Russia during the second half of the 11th—12th centuries. In order to address the research questions, the author applied the chronological and analytical methodological approaches, as well as the methods of analogy, interpretative synthesis and generalisation. The research specifies for the first time in Russian historical studies the link between the anti-Christian movement in Rus during the 10th—11th centuries and the city-sanctuaries of the Zbruch cult centre, determines the time frame of the most large-scale anti-Christians manifestations that had swept through the Transnistrian region at the end of the 10th—11th centuries, and analyses in detail the punitive campaigns of the Kievan princes against their recalcitrant subjects – the Transdnestrovites. The author comes to the conclusion that the Dniester-Carpathian region was a sacred pagan centre in Kievan Rus during the pre-Christian and early Christian eras. At the end of the 10th century and the second decade of the 11th century Dniester became the epicentre of two powerful waves of anti-Christian movements in Ancient Russia and Poland. The pagan communities in Western Russia had survived and continued their fight against Christianisation up to the end of the 12th century.