Ukrainian Idol to Perun Destroyed by Vandals

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  November 14, 2012 — 24 Comments

At the beginning of this month, a wooden idol of the god Perun, installed in the Ukrainian city of Kiev by Slavic Pagan reconstructionists/revivalists (known as Ridnovir), was destroyed by unnamed vandals. According to the Native Faith Association of Ukraine (ORU) this was a coordinated effort that required machinery and multiple people to accomplish. This desecration comes after a Ukrainian Pagan temple was attacked at the end of 2011 in Poltava.

The European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER) released a statement saying that this event “rocked all those who respected the ancient Slavic faith.”

Perun idol in Kiev before the desecration.

Perun idol in Kiev before the desecration. (Photo: ORU)

This event rocked all those who respected the ancient Slavic faith. In Poland, in the name of Rodzimo Wiaro (Stanislaw Potrebowski), an appeal on behalf of their fellow Ukrainians was released. The appeal reads “With pain we are going through the news of your idol’s desecration in Kiev. Through this tragedy we stand in solidarity with you. The authors of this crime should not feel like they still live 1000 years ago, when the sacred groves were destroyed and our people’s idols were profaned. Across Europe, the old spiritual traditions are being reborn, and that which has been persistently forced on us is drawing back. The destruction of our idols and beliefs will not minimize our fidelity to our ancestral faith. Let this sordid crime become one more stimulus to move us into restoring and strengthening our indigenous culture. “

This incident seems to be part of a larger tapestry within the Ukraine, where tensions between competing worldviews seem to be ratcheting up. Back in August members of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen took a chainsaw to a giant wooden cross to protest the treatment of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, while the recent Ukrainian elections were very controversial (and very close), causing mass demonstrations. No doubt some see the rise of Slavic Paganism as an affront to traditional Orthodox values, even though adherents of the traditional pre-Christian faiths in the Ukraine are hardly heterogeneous in political or social views (Ridnovir was recently denied inclusion in national religious organizations).  Unlike other European countries, clergy in the Ukraine are very involved in politics, fueling tensions with those who feel the Orthodox and Catholic churches in that region exercise too much control over society.

Within Slavic Paganism Perun is the highest power, controller of thunder and lightning. He shares many, but not all, characteristics with the Norse god Thor. As mentioned above, Ridnovir maintain that this desecration of Perun’s idol will simply become a “stimulus” towards growing and strengthening their faith. As I find more information on this incident, and the larger picture of current tensions between Pagans and Christians in the Ukraine, I’ll post updates.

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Jason Pitzl-Waters

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  • trumoonbear

    Closed-minded people suck.

  • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

    Desecration of Pagan “idols” is explicitly encouraged by the sacred texts of the Christian religion, and wherever the Christian religion has taken root there has always been such violence.

    • Baruch Dreamstalker

      Much the same could be said of Islam.

      • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

        And then some.

  • harmonyfb

    This hurts my heart. :(

  • cederelk

    A níð on these vandals! Let’s not let them get away with this kind of crime!

    • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

      Indeed. The Gods themselves are not harmed by such acts and do not need our protection. But human society is greatly harmed by those who seek to destroy the sacred ties between humans and Gods. And it is not up to the Gods to deal with this problem – it is up to us.

  • Dantes

    Let us not forget as well that many Ukrainian pagans are active national Socialists as well. While it may have nothing to do with this act of desecration, it is a detail that has its importance.

    • Baruch Dreamstalker

      It’s my impression — mostly from reading The Wild Hunt — that European Paganism is more nationalisitic than North American Paganism.

    • Chris

      Certainly. And if you browse around the Native Faith Association of Ukraine website that Jason linked to (I used Google’s translations), you’ll find denunciations of race-mixing, tolerance, the Jews, the Asiatic hordes, etc. Seems to be the “Christianity is too Jewish” school of paganism.

      Of course fascists are entitled to religious freedom too. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the vandals were just as virulently anti-Semitic as these folks.

    • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

      How many? Hmmmm? Approximately? And what are your “sources”?

      I’m certain that you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what you are talking about.

  • E

    This is horrible. :(
    I don’t understand why people cant leave others alone.

  • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

    Alas, it is true. The “Native Faith” group is thoroughly, and even proudly, racist. Their leader, Galyna Lozko, has written an article entitled “The Role of the Native Faith in the White Renaissance”, which comprises one section of small multilingual pamphlet entitled “The White World’s Future”. It was published in 2006 based on a conference by the same name held in Moscow. Here is a link to a pdf of the pamphlet: http://www.tulaev.info/pdf/15_P.V.Tulaev_WWF_book.pdf. Lozko’s little racist screed appears, translated into English, on page 99.

    These people are not Heathens or Pagans or Hellenes or Traditionalists. Their neofascist ideology is thoroughly modern and to the extent that it has any religious content, that comes primarily from modern Christianity, which is incestuously intertwined with the modern phenomena of Racism and Nationalism.

    • Lēoht Sceadusawol

      Now now. It is entirely possible to be both a Pagan and a Fascist.

      I have a little line for situations like this:

      I will keep my religion out of your politics if you keep your politics out of my religion.

      • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

        I believe in keeping an open mind. But not so open that my brains fall out.

        • Lēoht Sceadusawol

          I believe in letting people have whatever political and religious opinions they want, so long as they return the favour. Otherwise things get messy.

        • Dantès

          Yep, a great deal of fascist neo pagans are much more political than religious, just look at the golden dawn that, until not so long time ago encouraged the worship of the olympians, is now a strong supporter of the orthodox church.

          Still I believe too that some fascist neo pagans are also sincere in their religious views, they just see things in a different way than you and me.

          • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

            I am relieved to hear that the fascist scum in the Golden Dawn have returned to their true home: Christianity.

  • Daniel SnowKestral

    Could Perun also be connected to Taranis, the Thunderer? This really breaks my heart to see such thoughtless destruction of a religion’s monument to the Sacred

  • Dantès

    Well, I could pull out the numerous anti semitic heavy metal bands that Ukraine has produced over the years but I would rather use a scholarly source describing the ukrainian neo pagan mouvement.

    http://www.uvm.edu/~aivakhiv/Insearch.pdf

    As argued by Liudmila Dymerskaya-Tsigelman and Leonid Finberg
    and by Victor A. Shnirelman, the “Jewish question” hovers over much of
    the Ukrainian Neopagan and Native Faith milieu.63 Most Ukrainian
    Neopagan publications make at least occasional derogatory references
    to Christianity as a foreign and “Jewish” religion, and frequently castigate
    it as a tool of “internationalism and cosmopolitanism,” terms recognized
    by Jewish scholars as code words for an imagined conspiracy of
    “international Jewry.”64 Perhaps most disturbingly, although there is
    otherwise hardly a word about Jews in Halyna Lozko’s Neopagan prayer
    manual Pravoslov, the final page features ten “Pagan commandments,”
    among them “Don’t fear!” “Don’t be lazy!” and “Don’t lie!” with the last
    of them being “Don’t get involved with Jews!”65 This perspective ties in
    directly to the movement’s anti-globalism. Slovo Oriïv’s editorial on the
    tenth anniversary of Ukrainian independence declares, “Today we’ve
    simply divided up our [former] total dependence on Moscow among
    Moscow, Washington, Israel, Europe, and god knows who else.”66
    Ukraine is seen as having been handed from one oppressor to another:
    “‘Jehovah’s chosen’ nation and the ‘global police force’ ruled by them—
    the USA.”67

    Page 26

    • http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

      I place very little value in “academic” denunciations. Professional scholars are often among the worst perpetrators of fascist-baiting.

      But in this particular case the accusation is true. This we know this not due to antifa propaganda or learned deconstructions. We know it because the Native Faith movement, in their own words and actions, proudly proclaim that they are racists and anti-semites, even to the extent that they are willing to stand side-by-side with the likes of David Duke in the interests of the the future of the White Race.

      Galina Lozko, the leader of the Native Faith movement, participated in a 2006 conference in Moscow on “The White World’s Future”. Here is a direct quote from one of the presentations made at that meeting:

      “The American political system, along with its false spiritual fundaments, has lead to the complete Jewdification of the American nation … However, the Jewdification of America is not only practical but, much more fundamentally, moral, mental and spiritual. The subtly depotic modern capitalistic democracy is an aspect of the most totalitarian mammonistic uniformity that Jews introduce and imposed on the White World ….”
      Elleftherios Ballas, “Arma: Arya Spirit and Racial Identity”, published in “The White World’s Future”, p. 113. Galina Lozko’s contribution appears on p. 99 of this publication, and David Duke’s appears on p. 79. Here is a link to the whole thing in pdf format:
      http://www.tulaev.info/pdf/15_P.V.Tulaev_WWF_book.pdf

      And here is a link to David Duke’s own account of the 2006 conference: http://www.davidduke.com/?p=581

      Also it must be noted that the 2006 Moscow meeting on “The White World’s Future” was organized by the Russian magazine Athenaeum, whose editor is Galina Lozko’s husband.

      • Dantes

        Well, the source i choose was only relevant in the sense that it uncovered quotes and actions originating from these groups. The political side of the Ukrainian Pagan Movement was just one part of the article that’s all, no ideology in it whatsoever.