Khlyst: Sects, Literature and Revolution

The book of a famous cultural historian is devoted to the discourse on Russian sects in Russia at the turn of the centuries. The sectarian interests of the cultural elite were an important direction of the radicalization of Russian thought... on the path to revolution. Tracing the fates and customs of mystical sects (such as Khlysts, Skoptsy, and others), the author thoroughly examines their images in literature, their functions in utopian consciousness, and their place in the political life of the era. Fresh interpretations of classical texts are interspersed with new archival documents. The author's method is text archaeology: a combination of new historicism, post-structuralist philology, historical sociology, and psychoanalysis. In this sharp light, key figures from Solovyov and Blok to Rasputin and Bonch-Bruevich appear differently.