The History of Eastern Slavic Paganism Academic Research: Review of the Sources of the Second Half of the XIX Century — 1917 / История научных исследований язычества восточных славян: обзор литературы второй половины XIX в. — 1917 г. (original) (raw)

2022, Богословский вестник

The article continues an overview of the scientific studies on Eastern Slavs’ pagan beliefs, published in the previous issue of Theological Bulletin, no 1 (44), 2022. The author considers a period important for the Russian humanities and related to understanding the essential features of Slavic mythology. The article presents a path of the scientific studies from the 2nd half of the XIX century till 1917. The first scientific attempts (Shchapov, Shchepkin) to identify the origins of archaic ideas are lightened in the beginning of the article. The ideas of the solar-mythological school (Afanasyev) and the usage of the comparative historical method (Sumtsov) are given a general analysis. The author pays attention to the achievements of the historical school (Miller), considers the ideas of diffusionism (Ruzhnetsky, Korsh) and the subsequent dominance of evolutionism (niederle), concluding with an assessment of the scientific contribution of Zelenin, who used an integrated approach to the issues under study. The article reflects the complex path of scientific research in the specified period, with obvious achievements, inevitable mistakes and not always reasonable assumptions. The methodology used by the author takes into account not only the data provided by secular sciences (philology, ethnography, religious studies, folklore studies), but also bases on the theological vision of the phenomena described.

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