Peterburgian Vedism

Peterburgian Vedism (Russian: Петербургский Ведизм) or Peterburgian Rodnovery (Петербургское Родноверие), or more broadly Russian Vedism (Русский Ведизм) and Slavic Vedism (Славянский Ведизм), is one of the earliest branches of Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism) and one of the most important schools of thought within it, founded by Viktor Nikolayevich Bezverkhy (volkhv Ded Ostromysl; 1930–2000) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the 1970s. Early Peterburgian Vedism developed independently from other Rodnover movements in the inland of Russia, due to the distinguished culture of the city of Saint Petersburg itself, and represents one of the most cohesive right-wing nationalist Rodnover movements. Despite the isolation of the movement in its first stages, early Peterburgian Vedists drew inspiration from Russian-Ukrainian Ivanovism, and established relations with Vseyasvetniks and Ynglists, while the use of the term "Vedism" to refer to Rodnovery goes back to Yury Petrovich Mirolyubov, the writer or discoverer of the Book of Veles. Peterburgian Vedic theology is a pantheism in which all the gods are considered hypostases proceeding from the supreme Yedinobog (Единобог, "One-God"). Communities of Peterburgian Vedism have been founded throughout Russia, in Belarus and in Ukraine. Viktor Bezverkhy borrowed the term "Vedism" — itself already used in the academia to refer to the historical Vedic religion based on the Indian Vedas — from Yury Mirolyubov and his interpretation of the Book of Veles, aligning with that tradition of thought which identified Slavic religion with ancient Vedic religion, studied linguistic and conceptual Indian-Slavic parallels, and speculated about what the original "Vedic Russian" or "Vedrussian" religion was like. According to the Peterburgian Vedists, the word "Vedism" comes from the verb "to know" (vedat') — a semantic root which Slavic languages share with Indian Sanskrit language —, and it expresses the difference between sight or knowledge of spiritual truth and dogmatic "believing" (verit'), the latter being typical of non-Vedic doctrines.