Aleksandr Khinevich’in Yngliist Kilisesi İdeolojisinde Etnosentrizm ve Özgürlük Kavramlarının İnşası

Alıev A.

Bozok Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, sa.30, ss.47-65, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

Abstract

The Construction of Ethnocentrism and the Concept of Freedom in the Ideology of Aleksandr Khinevich’s Yngliist Church     

This article examines the phenomenon of Yngliism-the Ancient Russian Yngliist Church of the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings-which emerged in the early 1990s under the leadership of Aleksandr Yuryevich Khinevich as a radical, ethnocentric tendency within Slavic neopaganism, namely Rodnovery. The scope of the research comprises the analysis of the doctrinal texts and institutional strategies of this structure. The study aims to present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the movement's ideological foundations, legitimization mechanisms, and internal conceptual contradictions within the context of its relationship with traditional religious institutions. While scrutinizing how pseudo-historical continuity is constructed in destructive religious structures, the focal point of the research is to decode the unique nature of Yngliism’s syncretic structure and the character of its dogmatic and institutional rupture with traditional Christianity. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is based on the textual and critical analysis of the primary sources of the movement, which is blended with the conceptual tools of the sociology of religion and comparative religion. As a result of the research, the syncretic nature of Yngliism, in which elements of Slavic folklore and mysticism are articulated with the decontextualized Scandinavian epic tradition and Theosophy, has been revealed. The strategy of semantic appropriation and transformation of Christian terms such as Orthodoxy and Old Belief, utilized by this structure to create the illusion of historical continuity, has been identified and analyzed. The research addresses the comparative analysis of the Orthodox Church and the Yngliist movement, examining the deep-rooted theological differences, fundamental divergences regarding the doctrine of salvation, and the distinct rupture in institutional structures from a structural and doctrinal perspective. It has been determined that while Orthodox Christianity relies on universalism and fundamental canon law, Yngliism substitutes this with racial determinism. Another critical dimension of the study is the conceptual analysis of the category of freedom in Yngliist discourse. This analysis concretely demonstrates the profound internal contradiction that exists between an individual's declaration of will (volya) and rigid hereditary fixity (RITA laws) alongside a strict intra-community hierarchy. The research findings indicate that elements such as radical ethnocentrism, a tendency toward isolation from the outside world, and the referencing of apocryphal manuscripts marginalize the movement and isolate it within the broader Rodnover movement. This process ultimately renders the classification of the movement's institutions and core texts as 'extremist' inevitable. Keywords: History of Religions, Neopaganism, Rodnovery, Yngliism, Orthodox Church, Syncretism, Ethnocentrism.