Bazhovism

[4] The Bazhovites regard Arkaim, not far from Magnitogorsk in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, as the navel of the Earth where there is an exchange of energy with the higher planes of the universe,[5] and the Ural Mountains as the energetic heart of Russia, being the line of juncture between Europe and Asia.

[8] It is regarded as the major characteristically Ural new religious movement, along with a branch in Perm Krai,[3] and was briefly persecuted under the governor Pyotr Sumin in Chelyabinsk Oblast.

[14] According to Karina Y. Povstyeva, the Russian narrative genre of skaz, that in which Bazhov's tales are formulated, which combines real and unreal elements, lends itself particularly well to esoteric interpretation and doctrinalisation.

[17] In his At the Old Mine (1938), a critical essay about his own work, Bazhov says that he learnt the stories about Ural sacred knowledge from his grandfather V. A. Khmelinin (nicknamed Slyshko) between 1892 and 1895.

[21] In a Bazhovite magazine he was described as follows:[4] Yermak connected Europe and dug the way to the East, from where the light always comes, where the mysterious Belovodye is located, attracting the seekers of God and meaning of life for centuries.

Yermak knew about all this.The Mistress of the Copper Mountain is the most important deity of Bazhovism,[4] believed to guard the access to the sacred knowledge and to open it only to her elects.

[16] The goddess manifests herself through the animal, vegetal and mineral kingdoms,[16] and is considered to protect all the peoples of the Urals through her "fiery" spiritual force.

[24] In his essay At the Old Mine, Bazhov described the Ural goddess as follows:[23] The Mistress of the Mountain became the personification of the power, wealth and beauty of the subsoil, which are fully revealed only to the best representatives of the working people.Besides the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Bazhovites also worship the Great Snake/Colubrid (Veliky Poloz), the Blue Snake/Dragon (Sinyaya Zmey), the Blue Lady (Sinyushka) and the Fire Lady (Ognevushka), among other characters from Bazhov's tales; they are considered to be assistants of the Ural goddess.

[24] Vladimir Sobolev foretold the end of times to occur in the late 1990s; he foresaw that Siberia would escape the degradation of the world and from the Siberian people would arise the new race of the Age of Aquarius in Belovodye.

[14] According to the Bazhovites, Shambhala is the same as Arkaim, the energetic centre of the Earth, its "navel", where the "exchange of energy with the universe takes place", and will be the model for building the new Aquarian civilisation.