Baltic neopaganism

Baltic neopaganism is a category of autochthonous religious movements which have revitalised within the Baltic people (primarily Lithuanians and Latvians). These movements trace their origins back to the 19th century and they were suppressed under the Soviet Union; after its fall they have witnessed a blossoming alongside the national and cultural identity reawakening of the Baltic peoples, both in their homelands and among expatriate Baltic communities, with close ties to conservation movements. One of the first ideologues of the revival was the Prussian Lithuanian poet and philosopher Vydūnas. During the Pope Francis's visit to the Baltic states in 2018 the Dievturi and Romuva movements sent a joint letter to Pope Francis calling him to urge fellow Christians "to respect our own religious choice and cease impeding our efforts to achieve national recognition of the ancient Baltic faith". The movements have said that they dislike the usage of the term "pagan" as it is "loaded with centuries of prejudice and persecution". Dievturība Dievturība (Latvian compound derived from Dievs "God", plus turēt "hold", "uphold", "behold", "keep"; literally "Godkeeping") is a Latvian Pagan revival, also present among Latvian Canadian and Latvian American expatriate communities. It is characterised by a monistic theological approach to Baltic paganism viewing all the gods and all nature as expression of the Dievs. A common view is that the Dievs is at the same time the transcendent fountain of reality, the matter-energy substrate, and the law ordaining the universe. The movement was started in 1925 by Ernests Brastiņš with the publication of the book entitled Revival of Latvian Dievturība.Latvian Encyclopedia of Religions: Neopagānisms / dievturi. After the annexation of Latvia to the Soviet Union the Dievturi were repressed, but the movement continued to operate among exiles. Since the 1990s, Dievturi was re-introduced to Latvia and began to grow again; in 2011 there were about 663 official members.