Ivanovism () is a Rodnover (Slavic Neopagan) new religious movement and healing system in Eastern Europe based on the teachings of the Russian mystic Porfiry Korneyevich Ivanov (1898–1983), who elaborated his doctrines by drawing upon Russian folklore. The movement began to be institutionalized in the 1980s and '90s, and in the same period it had an influence on the other Rodnover movement of Peterburgian Vedism.
Ivanovite theology is a pantheism in which "Nature" (Pri-Roda in Slavic languages) is seen as a personified, universal and almighty force expressing herself primarily as the four elemental gods of Air, Earth, Fire and Water, while Porfiry Ivanov is deified as the Parshek, her messenger and intercessor. In some interpretations of the theology, Nature is the cloth of a more abstract God, and God comes to full consciousness in mankind. Central to the movement's practice are the Detka ("Child") health system based on twelve commandments and the singing of a Hymn to Life which contains a synthesis of the movement's beliefs.
Overview
Scholars of the study of religions have classified Ivanovism variously as a nature religion, a philosophy, and a system of health. The scholar Boris Knorre defined Ivanovism as an autochthonous Slavic new religious movement combining Slavic paganism with some Christian concepts, and a worldview in line with the theories of "energism" and "noospherology". The scholar S. I. Ivanenko ascribed Ivanovism to the "movements of spiritual and physical improvement", while other scholars have emphasised its similarities with Taoism, yogic traditions, and other Eastern religions, while recognising its isolated Russian origins. Some scholars including Alexey V. Gaidukov characterised Ivanovism as a movement of deep ecology, essentially an animism based on the deification of natural elements and on the attribution of healing properties to them, while O. V. Aseyev described it as a system of "health promotion, rituals and healing magic" aimed at "mastering the mystical forces of nature". The scholar Kaarina Aitamurto cited Ivanovism among the movements of Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism) built on Russian folklore, noting that it had an influence on the other Rodnover movement of Peterburgian Vedism. The scholar Natalya V. Prokopyuk noted that despite being considerably different from other forms of Rodnovery in its doctrines, Ivanovism shares with other Rodnover movements the idea of a return to the natural world — seen as a source of spiritual strength —, the belief in reincarnation and the idea that by merging with the natural world one may see and steer past and future lives, and the tendency of believers to live in village communities. She also proposed that Ivanovism is ascribable to the broader trend of Russian New Age.
During the history of the movement, because of the shared belief in energetism and noospherology, the Ivanovites got close to the followers of Nikolay Fyodorovich Fyodorov (Fyodorovites) and other Russian cosmists, as well as to the Roerichians. However, the cooperation with these other movements did not last for long because of doctrinal reasons. Conflict with the former arose around the different beliefs concerning the role of mankind within the cosmos and the divinity of Ivanov: while the Ivanovites insisted on complete submission of mankind to the natural forces, the Fyodorovites argued, contrariwise, that the human mind has to tame and harness the natural forces; moreover, the Fyodorovites declared themselves Orthodox Christians and refused Ivanov's divinity. The cooperation with the Roerichians, which had begun at the beginning of the perestroika on projects concerning ecology and pacifism, similarly came to an end as the Ivanovites recognised that the Roerichian doctrine might not integrate Ivanov's divinity and therefore they rejected Agni Yoga — the main Roerichian practice — as "not from God".
According to Knorre, Ivanovism is divided into two levels: the first is the inner circle of initiates, the directive core of the movement, who believe that Ivanov is a deity, practise the most esoteric methods taught by him and maintain a "mystical" connection with him after his death; the second is the outer circle of uninitiates, who only practise the health techniques preached by Ivanov and generally do not share the belief that he is a deity, although among them there may be single adherents who hold this belief. The Russian Orthodox Church expressed strong criticism towards the Ivanovites; the Orthodox Christian theologian and activist Alexander Dvorkin criticised Ivanovism for spreading "dense paganism" and "primitive shamanism", and deemed Porfiry Ivanov a "psychopath".
History Early 20th century
Porfiry Korneyevich Ivanov was born on 20 February 1898 in the village of Orekhovka in Luhansk Oblast, Russian Empire, from the family of a miner. He graduated from the fourth grade at a parish school, and went to work at the age of 15. The situation of constant material need he endured in his childhood left an indelible imprint on his character; this, most likely, influenced the strict rules of the creed he would have later preached, such as the abstinence from excesses of food, clothing, and "unnecessary" labour. In his youth, Ivanov was known for his cocky and even hooligan character, and took part in village fistfights as the ringleader; he even served in prison for having stolen a pair of boots. During the Russian Revolution (1917–1923), he was sympathetic towards the Bolsheviks, studied Marxist literature, participated in collectivisation and in the closure of churches, and was admitted as a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He also worked as a supplier at a metallurgical plant and led an artel of workers.
When cancer struck Ivanov's body in 1933, it was a turning point in his life. After having lost any hope for a recovery in the city, he decided to hasten his death, by dying not from cancer, but from cold; he began to douse himself and to walk naked in the extreme cold. This, however, gave the opposite effect, as he began to recover from the illness. Through his health recovery, he began to have a special awareness of eternal natural forces:
25 April 1933 is celebrated by the Ivanovites as the "Birthday of the Idea", the revelation of the eternal forces of Nature which Ivanov received on the Chuvilkin Hill in his birthplace, a hill which was jokingly bequeathed to him by his father when he was a child. After the healing, Ivanov began to talk about "Nature" as a living divine personality, arguing that mankind should live without being fenced off from it by technology, and perceive Nature as it is. At the same time, Ivanov proclaimed himself as an exceptional mediator with Nature, the only "natural man of Nature" capable of teaching people about the right way of "natural existence". From this point onwards, his biography takes the style of the hagiography: like a prophet, he seeks confirmation of his exceptionality in signs, which he receives as "promptings from Nature". He allegedly healed the atrophied legs of a woman, and went to the raging sea calming a storm, amongst other wonderworks.
He subsequently adopted an itinerant lifestyle, walked barefoot and naked from chest to waist in any weather, even at −45 °C, while proclaiming himself as a teacher of divine truths, a deity, or even God himself. He began to speak in third or second person under the name Parshek (Паршек; a nickname which was given to him in childhood), and he began to keep a diary, which by the end of his life had reached the amount of more than three hundred notebooks. The style of his writing is peculiar, without punctuation and with Ukrainianisms not following the elementary rules of the Russian language, and such "Ivanov's style" is preserved at any new publication of his works. He began to preach his doctrine as broadly as possible, to state legislative bodies, to Orthodox Christian churches, wishing, as he noted, to examine them about "what they really prayed for". On one occasion he turned to the parishioners of a church and preached to them; he was immediately taken out by the clergy, but twelve parishioners followed him, among whom Valentina Sukharevskaya (Valya) became his closest disciple. He defined them as "people whom Nature has selected for us in my life".
1980s Porfiry Ivanov was soon prosecuted for his attitude of challenge towards authorities. He was fired from his job, arrested, sent to psychiatric hospitals, and prescribed a compulsory course of treatment. He did not give up, and with the help of his followers he appealed to the Soviet government, asking to recognise his teaching for the sake of improving the health of the population, emphasising the popular origins of such teaching, which was being "created by the people themselves". In 1982, the magazine Ogonyok (No. 8) published an article by S. Vlasov, An Experiment Half a Century Long, which sparked an outbreak of interest for Ivanovism. Shortly before Ivanov's death in 1983, one of the theoreticians of Ivanovism formulated a code of physical health and moral behaviour — the Detka — to give a first systematisation to the teaching.
After Ivanov's death at the homestead of Verkhniy Kondryuchiy in Sverdlovsk, Luhansk Oblast, his followers continued to propagate the doctrine, which after the Chernobyl disaster (1986) and the struggle against atheism received a further impetus and reached unprecedented popularity. After the disaster, hundreds of residents of Kyiv lost faith in official medicine and began to follow the Detka system. In 1987, Valentina Sukharevskaya organised the first official Ivanovite congress in Orekhovka (the birthplace of Ivanov himself), Ukraine, after which such congresses began to be held regularly on a nationwide scale. Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the Ivanovites published booklets about their doctrine and organised meetings and lectures throughout Russia, not only in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but also in Vologda, Kazan, Zelenodolsk, Tver, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Kolomna, Ufa, Kostroma, Magnitogorsk, Yakutsk, Petrozavodsk, Inta, Cherepovets, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and other regional cities.
1990s–2000s Scientific conferences gave more space to the Ivanovite practice in the fields of official medicine and pedagogy, and the media started to broadcast about it on a large scale, even making movies about Ivanov's life. In 1991 the first conference of medical workers practising the Ivanovite method was held, and in the same year the Interregional Youth Conference of Ivanovites "My Gift of Youth" was held at the see of the Federal Assembly of Russia. In 1992 a large number of Ivanovites gathered at Chuvilkin Hill, the holiest place of the movement. An Ivanovite, N. A. Pichugin, edited Ivanov's diaries to make their style more appealing to the tastes of official cultural circles, introducing punctuation and standard spelling, and published them in 1994 as the two-volume The History of Parshek. In 1995 another conference was held at the see of the Federation Council of Russia with the participation of the representatives of ninety-seven cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the same time, the Ivanovites continued to develop the doctrine of the movement on the theoretical level, initially gaining consensus, especially among the followers of Nikolay Fyodorovich Fyodorov and other proponents of Russian cosmism, and trying to cooperate with the Roerichians in the fields of ecology and pacifism. However, the cooperation with these other movements ended soon for unbridgeable doctrinal differences, as they did not recognise Ivanov's divinity. The Ivanovites continued to take part in environmentalist causes. From about 1996 onwards, Ivanovite events became more closed and intended just for believers, partly in response to a growing hostility of the Russian Orthodox Church towards the movement.