Mystery and Mysticism in Russia in The Late XVIII - Early XIX Centuries

The author covers the period of the XVIII - the beginning of the XIX centuries as an era of special attention to the mystery in Russian society. According to the author, at this time in Russia there were two major processes in the field of mystical search. The first process is the penetration of the Western occult currents into Russian soil, connected with the impoverishment of the mystical component of Orthodoxy. Not finding an intensive spiritual life in the Russian church, the nobles sought it abroad; Russian branches of the Masonic lodges were established, with various divisions, symbols and occupations: astrology, alchemy, etc. The second process is the slow, gradual return of the mystical elements originally peculiar to Eastern Christianity: clever prayer, clever doing (the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov and Theophanes the Recluse). However, at the beginning of the nineteenth century this tradition, flourished in the Optina desert, had not yet been associated either with hesychasm or with Palamas teachings.