The Occultist Background of Bolshevism Cover Image

The Occultist Background of Bolshevism
The Occultist Background of Bolshevism

Author(s): Barbara Stanisławczyk
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History, Social Sciences, Psychology of Religion
Published by: Fundacja Instytut Nauki o Polityce
Keywords: occultism; freemasonry; sects; mysticism; Gnosticism; anthroposophy; theosophy; quasi-religion; bolshevism; communism

Summary/Abstract: The revolution in Russia was not conceived among workers and peasants, as it has been accepted in popular historiography. It was a project with intelligentsia roots and an esoteric background. The aim of the article is to show the long occultist path that led to Bolshevism and communism, whose origins date back to the times of Peter I and his reforms, carried out in the spirit of Western Gnosticism with the help of secret societies. In the 19th century Russia was captured by an occult frenzy, which combined various currents of thought and made the society treat the revolution as a mystical action leading to the construction of a new world. The issue we deal with in the article covers a wide range of interrelated social, political and cultural phenomena over the three hundred years of Russian history, for which the international context is extremely important. For obvious reasons, we do not aspire to exhaust the subject. The text is intended to draw attention to the actual profound causes for the origination of Bolshevism and communism, creating a scientific basis for a study that will be soon brought out in the book form.

  • Issue Year: 9/2023
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 50-59
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English