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On the Good Faith

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On the Good Faith On the Good Faith A Fourfold Discursive Construction of Zoroastrianism in Contemporary Russia Anna Tessmann Södertörns högskola 2012 Södertörns högskola SE-141 89 Huddinge www.sh.se/publications Cover Image: Anna Tessmann Cover Design: Jonathan Robson Layout: Jonathan Robson & Per Lindblom Printed by E-print, Stockholm 2012 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 68 ISSN 1652-7399 ISBN 978-91-86069-50-61650-6 Avhandlingar utgivna vid Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion, Göteborgs universitet 25 ISBN 978-91-88348-47-0 Contents Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Point of departure and previous research ............................................................................. 4 1.2. Aims, scope and delimitations of the study ........................................................................ 10 1.3. Outline of the thesis ................................................................................................................ 13 1.4. Sources and selection procedure ........................................................................................... 14 1.5. Notes on transliteration ......................................................................................................... 14 1.6. Religion in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s ........................................................................... 16 1.7. Theoretical background: discourses and vertical transfers ............................................... 26 1.8. Discourse analysis as method ................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 2: Zoroastrianism in the frame of religious practice ........................................................ 39 2.1. Zoroastrian voices and their resonances ............................................................................. 39 2.2. Information flood: books, periodicals, translations, and Internet presence .................. 48 2.2.1. Words of the Master Pavel Globa ................................................................................ 49 2.2.2. Group activity: The St. Petersburg magazine Mitra and the community messenger Tiri .......................................................................................................................... 53 2.2.3. Internet mission of the Russian Anjoman .................................................................. 56 2.2.4. A step aside: Kosmoenergetika and other NRMs ....................................................... 57 2.3. Formal structures .................................................................................................................... 58 2.4. Selected topics .......................................................................................................................... 70 2.4.1. Between secret doctrine and universal religion ......................................................... 70 2.4.2. The “Good religion” and the destiny of Russia ......................................................... 79 2.4.3. A religious ideal: Being Zoroastrian ............................................................................ 88 2.4.4. The Avesta and other holy books ................................................................................ 92 2.4.5. Zoroastrianism confronting other religions .............................................................. 94 2.5. Summary .................................................................................................................................. 99 Chapter 3: Zoroastrianism in the Russian academic discourse ................................................... 107 3.1. A historiographical perspective on Zoroastrianism ......................................................... 108 3.1.1. Zoroastrian texts translated into Russian ................................................................. 113 3.1.2. Zoroastrianism and social-economic history .......................................................... 117 ANNA TESSMANN—ON THE GOOD FAITH 3.1.3. The reception of Western scholarly works .............................................................. 122 3.2. Contemporary Zoroastrianism in Iranian studies and the study of religion ............... 124 3.2.1. Scholarly skepticism surrounding neo-Zoroastrians ............................................. 124 3.2.2. Russian Zoroastrianism as a pagan religion ............................................................ 130 3.2.3. An extinct or a living religion? ................................................................................... 133 3.3. Summary ................................................................................................................................ 136 Chapter 4: Zoroastrianism within the journalistic field ................................................................ 139 4.1. New mass media and Zoroastrianism ................................................................................ 139 4.2. A media kaleidoscope: thematic convergence .................................................................. 147 4.3. Media events and media actors ........................................................................................... 149 4.4. Zoroastrianism as a main reference ................................................................................... 154 4.5. Sharing mass media space with other religions ................................................................ 157 4.6. Journalistic evaluation .......................................................................................................... 158 4.7. Summary ................................................................................................................................ 159 Chapter 5: Zoroastrianism in contemporary Russian fiction ...................................................... 163 5.1. Religion in Russian fiction in times of change .................................................................. 163 5.2. Thus spoke the Russian Zarathustra .................................................................................. 169 5.3. Zarathushtra in the context of European discourses ....................................................... 173 5.4. Zoroastrianism in past, present, and future modes ......................................................... 181 5.4.1. The past: ancient Persia and magic ........................................................................... 182 5.4.2. The present: petroleum and mirrors ......................................................................... 190 5.4.3. The future: star wars and love for the motherland ................................................. 195 5.5. Summary ................................................................................................................................ 199 Chapter 6: Zoroastrianism in modern Russia: studying discourses and transfers .................... 205 6.1. Zoroastrianism in a mirror: its images in contemporary texts ...................................... 206 6.2. Descriptive strategies and discursive modes ..................................................................... 213 6.3. Studying contexts and some comments on method ........................................................ 216 References ............................................................................................................................................ 221 Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 237 Selected materials to Chapter 2: ................................................................................................. 237 Websites: .................................................................................................................................. 237 Books, articles, scripts: ........................................................................................................... 238 Selected materials to Chapter 3: ................................................................................................. 242 Selected materials and their abbreviations to Chapter 4: ....................................................... 251 Selected materials to Chapter 5: ................................................................................................. 252 Abbreviations Av Avestan AShA Avestan School of Astrology Mp Middle Persian Np New Persian, Farsi NRM New religious movement Oldp Old Persian ROC Russian Orthodox Church RuNet Russian-language Internet Vd Vidēvdād Y Yasna Yt Yasht Note: for abbreviated and latinized titles of electronic news papers used in this thesis see the list of selected materials to Chapter 4 in the Appendix. vii Acknowledgements At this point, my interpretation of the image of a tree-fragment from a relief at the Persepolis Apadana on the cover of my thesis has little to do with the religious and cultural symbols that are thematically tied to the relief. In my eyes, this study has been but a fragment of the search for the roots, trunk, branches,
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