Russian Authentism

[4] The philosophy and practice of the movement are considered as a way to lead humanity to the realisation of its divine nature, its intimate connection with — and even identity with — God.

[6] He gathered a group of acolytes and they studied Eastern religious and health techniques such as vegetarianism, yoga, the thought of Sri Aurobindo, and others.

[4] The organisation was engaged in the dissemination of the doctrine of Russian Authentism and published the samizdat magazines Psychic Culture (Психическая культура) and Kazan Cathedral (Казанский собор).

[6] In 1989 there was a split between the two groups, and Semyonov made a choice in favour of the "Rus", which eventually developed into the Thesaurus Union focused exclusively on Russian religious culture.

[7] The religious doctrine is presented in a compilation of a cycle of lectures carried out over the years and published under the title Public Sermon of Godmanhood (Публичная проповедь Богочеловечества).

[4] The adherents prefer not to qualify Russian Authentism as a "religion", but rather as a philosophical "worldview" and a psychological practice, a system of ideas which covers everything from healthy lifestyle to all the aspects of human life.

[4] The Latin word thesaurus, meaning "treasure", refers to the Russians as the custodians of the idea of the genealogical connection between humanity, reality and God.

[12] Such versatility makes Russian Authentism appealing for a wide range of people from different backgrounds: the semblance of scientificness appeals to former atheists; elements from Eastern thought are accessible to people who already practised yoga; the concept of godmanhood is familiar to those who have an acquaintance with broader Russian religious philosophy; the "Perunic" severity and quasi-militarism of the Thesaurus Union and the political ideas of the doctrine make the movement appealing to young nationalists; lastly, the methods of health improvement are attractive for the elderly.

[13] The scholar Alexey V. Gaidukov found that Russian Authentism is a complex philosophical system applicable to different fields of thought and practice; it is "difficult for the uninitiated" and distinguished by a precisely defined attitude towards other religions.

[10] Russian Authentism tries to synthesise all aspects of human experience, chiefly politics, philosophy and medicine, into a single system.

[10] As Semyonov himself explained:[10] Life is purposefulness, purposeful Being, and the essence of life and of human nature is rooted in the future, which is godmanhood – a new type of organisation of life on Earth, at whose core is the Planetary Intelligence.The purpose of human history is realised through a meditative connection of the individual persons with their ancestors in the past — through the tracing of ancestral continuity and therefore the return of the individuals to their true roots —, and then through the union of authenticated individual persons with each other into a supra-individual collective being, a good collective "Godman" (Вогочеловек, Bogochelovek).

[14] Russia has a special role in the eschatology of Authentism: according to the believers, it is the civilisation where the Godman is taking form, and, as the Godman's stronghold, the Russian people are bearers of the idea of the genealogical connection between humanity and divinity and possess spiritual and psychological characteristics which express their connection with divinity; the Russians are the treasury (thesaurus) carrying the idea of godmanhood.

[8] Modern Western civilisation is characterised by the Russian Authentists as a "subhuman" and "animal" organisation which promotes "anticulture" and "pornoculture", which develops inhumanity while oppressing true human qualities, and whose further existence is detrimental to the Earth.

[8] Such system of "consumeristic perversion of man" lives through the machinery of the states by both extorting money from taxpayers and depleting the resources of the environment, also enforcing a separation between rich and poor, and weakening and eroding true culture while denationalising and deterritorialising entire peoples.

[11] Such civliisation of godmanhood should be based on what the Authentists consider the "essential Russian principle" of sobornost (собо́рность, "spiritual community").

[17] The path of authentication is complex, as a person may be isolated from the context — "from the fabric of the entire universe" — only with a great deal of convention.

[7] The path of authentication may be conditionally divided into several stages of self-determination, that is to say of conscious formation and alteration of oneself.

[12] Like other Rodnovers, Russian Authentists also use, especially for introducing prayers, conspiracies, spells, and hymns to the gods, holy sounds and syllables considered to be Slavic and Aryan lexical heritage, such as Goy!, (Гой!

[21] Other organisations of Authentism are the society "Russes" (Россы), "Femina" (Фемина), the Party of Russian Statehood (Партии русской государственности), and the Humanist Youth Union (Гуманистический союз молодежи).

[6] The latter is encouraged as a necessary thing by the Russian Authentists, as the world of society and the individual person, and mankind and the environment, are seen as inextricably linked, or even as one and the same entity.