Uralic neopaganism

The movement has taken place since the 1980s and 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and alongside the ethnonational and cultural reawakening of the Finnic peoples of Russia, the Estonians and the Finns.

[1] In fact, Neopagan movements in Finland and Estonia have much older roots, dating from the early 20th century.

Among the Finnic peoples of the Volga Federal District of Russia (the Volga Finns and Udmurts), scholar Victor Schnirelmann has observed two cooperating patterns of development of Neopaganism: the reactivation of authentic rituals and worship ceremonies in the countrysides, and the development of systematised doctrines amongst the urban intelligentsia rejecting Russian Orthodoxy as a foreign religion.

There are two main organisations of the religion, the "Association of Finnish Native Religion" (Suomalaisen kansanuskon yhdistys ry) based in Helsinki and officially registered since 2002,[8] (120 members in 2008) and the "Taivaannaula" association (around a dozen members in 2008) headquartered in Turku with branches in many cities, founded and officially registered in 2007.

Other Hungarian Native Faith groups, however, cultivate further links with Scythian, Sumerian,[14] Turkic[15] and other cultures.

Unlike other neopagan movements, the Mari native religion, called Marla, is probably among the only ones to have been practiced without interruption since the Neolithic.

In the 19th century, influenced by monotheism, the Pagan beliefs altered and the image of a Osh Kugu Jumo, literally "Great God of Light", was strengthened.

Vitaly Tanakov, an adherent of the faith, was charged with inciting religious, national, social and linguistic hatred after publishing the book The Priest Speaks.

[18] The Neopagan revival was started in 1990,[19] alongside that of many other native religions in Russia, just in the verge of dissolution of the Soviet Union.