Editing Ynglism (section)

==Overview==
===Terminology===
[[File:Ynglist Church headquarters in Omsk, 2016.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The headquarters of the Ynglist Church in [[Omsk]], in 2016, including the residence of Aleksandr Khinevich in the foreground and the Temple of the Wisdom of Perun (Капище Веды Перуна) in the background]]
The term "Ynglism" refers to the [[Ynglings]], one of the early [[Germanic king|Germanic royal families]], whom Ynglists believe to be descendants of the [[Aryan race]] who originated from the [[Omsk Oblast|Omsk region]] of [[Western Siberia]], Russia. This narrative runs contrary to the [[Proto-Indo-European homeland|leading scholarly consensus]] of the homeland of the historical [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]].{{sfnm|1a1=Aitamurto|1y=2016|1p=50|2a1=Shnirelman|2y=2017b|2p=89}} According to the Ynglists, the term has cosmological significance,{{sfn|Aitamurto|2016|p=50}} referring to the order of the universe carried by the primordial fiery radiance — the ''Ynglia'', personified as ''Yngly'' — emanated by the supreme God, ''Ra-M-Kha''.{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|p=341}}<ref name="Derzhavarus-Ra-M-Kha">{{cite web|title=Рамха |trans-title=Ra-M-Kha |url=http://derzhavarus.ru/ra-m-ha.html |website=Derzhava Rus |date=25 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170626203020/http://derzhavarus.ru/ra-m-ha.html |archive-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> They also call their religion "Orthodoxy" and "Old Belief".{{sfn|Aitamurto|2016|pp=50–51}}

According to Ynglist history and terminology, the Slavic term for "Orthodoxy", ''Pravoslavie'' (Православие, that like the Greek counterpart precisely means "right honouring", or "honouring" [''slavit'''] the "truth, order" [''Prav'']{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|p=341}}), is older than Christianity.{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|p=341}} The term, which means the right way of living in accordance with the law of the universe, was appropriated by [[Eastern Orthodox Christianity]] among the Slavs only by the 17th century, through the reforms of [[Patriarch Nikon of Moscow]], in order to wholly absorb the indigenous religion which was then still prevalent among the population.<ref name="Derzhavarus-Belovodye">{{cite web|title=Беловодье – древняя прародина Ариев и Славян |trans-title=Belovodye – the ancestral home of the Aryans and the Slavs |url=http://derzhavarus.ru/belovodje-prarodina-ariev-slavyan.html |website=Derzhava Rus |date=19 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703182410/http://derzhavarus.ru/belovodje-prarodina-ariev-slavyan.html |archive-date=3 July 2017}}</ref> Prior to the reform, Christianity used the Greek-based loanword ''Ortodoksalnost'' (Ортодоксальность).<ref name="Derzhavarus-Belovodye"/> The term "Russian" and related ones would derive instead from the Aryan root ''ros'' (рос), referring to "brightness" and "holiness".{{sfn|Gaidukov|2000|p=85}}

The definition "[[Old Believers]]" (Староверы, ''Starovery''), which today is employed to refer to Christians who preserved pre-Nikonian rituals, who are more correctly called the "Old Ritualists" (Старообрядцы, ''Staroobryadtsy''), was imposed on the latter during the same Nikonian reform.<ref name="Derzhavarus-Belovodye"/> Their previous name was "Righteous Christians" (Праведные Христиане, ''Pravednye Khristiane''), and "Old Believers" referred instead to indigenous Slavic religion.<ref name="Derzhavarus-Belovodye"/> According to the Ynglists, these theories would be proven by 13th-century documents preserved by a sect of the Christian Old Believers.<ref name="Derzhavarus-Belovodye"/>

===Characteristics===
Aleksandr Y. Khinevich (b. 1961) is a native of [[Omsk]] and graduated from the [[Omsk State Technical University]].{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=89}} He began to give an organisation to Ynglism between the 1980s and the early 1990, starting from the community ''Dzhiva-Astra'' (Джива-Астра) which practised [[exorcism]] and [[traditional medicine]],{{sfnm|1a1=Matytsin|1y=2009|1loc=passim|2a1=Shnirelman|2y=2017b|2p=89|3a1=Golovneva|3y=2018|3p=341}} and formally founded the Ynglist Church in 1992, in Omsk.{{sfnm|1a1=Gaidukov|1y=2000|1p=33|2a1=Matytsin|2y=2009|2loc=passim|3a1=Aitamurto|3y=2016|3p=50|4a1=Skrylnikov|4y=2016|4loc=passim}} In the same year he published a book entitled ''Ynglism, Short Course'', in which he put forward the backbone of his doctrine, and he visited the [[United States]] where he claimed to have established branch groups of the Ynglist Church.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=90}} Later in the 1990s he published the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'', the fundamental books of Ynglism.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=90}} As the head of the Ynglist Church he is known by his followers as ''Pater Diy'' (Патер Дий, meaning "Divine Father" or "Shining Father"),{{sfnm|1a1=Maltsev|1y=2015|1loc=passim|2a1=Yashin|2y=2016|2p=39|3a1=Shnirelman|3y=2017b|3p=91|4a1=Golovneva|4y=2018|4p=341}} or ''[[volkhv]]'' Kolovrat.{{sfn|Prokopyuk|2017|p=40}} He does not qualify Ynglism either as a "[[paganism]]" or as a "[[religion]]",{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017a|p=97}} but rather as a "[[cosmos|cosmic]] wisdom" brought by the Aryans,{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=89}} and preserved since ancient times in the region of Western Siberia.{{sfn|Gaidukov|2000|p=33}} The scholar Elena Golovneva argued that it is accurate to classify Ynglism a "[[new religious movement]]", or an "[[invented tradition]]", which nonetheless contains elements drawn from very old sources.{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|pp=341–342}} Scholars have identified influences from [[Hinduism]], [[Zoroastrianism]],{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017a|p=98}} [[Helena Blavatsky]]'s [[Theosophy]],{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=90}} and German [[Ariosophy]] within Ynglism.{{sfn|Saunders|2019|p=566}} The scholars Alexey V. Gaidukov and Kaarina Aitamurto described Ynglism as a movement focused on [[Western esotericism|esotericism]], with an authoritative leading hierarchy and a well-defined doctrine and liturgy.{{sfnm|1a1=Gaidukov|1y=2000|1pp=33, 42, 141–142|2a1=Aitamurto|2y=2007|2loc=passim|3a1=Aitamurto|3y=2016|3p=51}}

In the 1990s Khinevich had in all likelihood an acquaintance with Viktor Bezverkhy (1930–2000), the founder and major ideologist of [[Peterburgian Vedism]].{{sfnm|1a1=Prokopyuk|1y=2017|1p=38|2a1=Kutarev|2y=2017|2p=67}} Khinevich would have been granted the title of "honorary Wend" by the Union of Wends, the Rodnover organisation founded by Bezverkhy in 1990.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=90}} Although there was not a full-fledged cooperation with the Peterburgian Vedists, and they never accepted the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' of Ynglism, Khinevich reportedly took inspiration from Peterburgian Vedism and reprinted many materials of the Union of Wends.{{sfn|Kutarev|2017|p=67}} In the 2000s, [[Nikolay Viktorovich Levashov]] (1961–2012), after having elaborated his own teachings widely based upon Ynglism, established another organised Rodnover current, [[Levashovism]], which recognises the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' as its fundamental sources.{{sfnm|1a1=Yashin|1y=2016|1p=40|2a1=Prokopyuk|2y=2017|2p=32|3a1=Golikov|3y=2019|3p=182}}

The scholar Polina P. Kocheganova noted that the "cosmic religion" proposed by Ynglism may be regarded as a "[[modernism|modernist]]" approach to Rodnovery, different from other currents which represent a "[[Traditionalist School (perennialism)|traditionalist]]" approach.{{sfn|Kocheganova|2020|p=248}} Similarly, Gaidukov defined Ynglism as an [[eclecticism|eclectic]] or "polysyncratic" (i.e. mixing together elements from different sources) form of Rodnovery.{{sfn|Gaidukov|2000|p=29}} For its characteristics, Ynglism is not regarded as genuine Rodnovery by some other Rodnover groups; in 2009, two of the largest Russian Rodnover organisations, the [[Union of Slavic Native Belief Communities]] and the Circle of Pagan Tradition, issued a joint statement against Ynglism, Levashovism, and the doctrines of other authors, deeming them "pseudo-Pagan teachings, pseudo-linguistics, pseudo-science and outright speculation."{{sfnm|1a1=Aitamurto|1y=2016|1p=51|2a1=Gaidukov|2y=2016|2p=40|3a1=Skrylnikov|3y=2016|3loc=passim|4a1=Prokopyuk|4y=2017|4p=45|5a1=Golovneva|5y=2018|5p=340}} Kocheganova observed that, however, also the teachings of those Rodnover groups which criticised Ynglism are based on hypotheses about ancient Slavic religion.{{sfn|Kocheganova|2020|pp=248–249}}

===Writings and authors===
[[File:Славяно-Арийские Веды (2).jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Three of the canonical ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'', the ''Book of Light'', two copies of ''Ynglism'', and the ''Source of Life'', plus the non-canonical ''Slavic Worldview'']]
The central holy writings of the Ynglist movement are the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' (Славяно-Арийские Веды, ''Slavyano-Ariyskiye Vedy''), purportedly ancient texts allegedly passed down generation by generation in Western Siberia, whose most ancient parts would be tens of thousands of years old.{{sfnm|1a1=Aitamurto|1y=2007|1loc=passim|2a1=Aitamurto|2y=2016|2p=50}} They were allegedly originally written on ''santy'' (сантии, сантьи, саньтии), tablets made of [[noble metals]], which would now be kept in a secret location by the high priests of Ynglism and would contain texts composed of 186,000 "[[pre-Christian Slavic writing|Slavic Aryan runes]]", first transliterated into [[Cyrillic script]] and printed on paper in 1944.{{sfn|Prokopyuk|2017|p=32}} Four hundred [[Dacians|Dacian]] golden copies of the original Siberian tablets are claimed to have been discovered in 1875 at the [[Sinaia Monastery]] in the [[Bucegi Mountains]], [[Romania]], and handed over to the king [[Carol I of Romania]], of the [[Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen]] family, who ordered to recopy them in lead before melting most of the golden ones to replenish the royal treasury; known as the "Dacian Santies", they would be preserved in various private vaults and museums of Romania.<ref name="Derzhavarus-Dacian-santies">{{cite web|title=Саньтии Даков |trans-title=Dacian Santies |url=https://derzhavarus.ru/santii-dakov.html |website=Derzhava Rus |date=22 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220151732/https://derzhavarus.ru/santii-dakov.html |archive-date=20 February 2020}}</ref> The ''Vedas'' were effectively published by Aleksandr Khinevich since the mid 1990s, and were preceded in 1992 by the book ''Ynglism, Short Course'' in which Khinevich put forward the core of his doctrine.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017b|p=90}} The Ynglists claim that the Scandinavian ''[[Edda]]s'' are a western European Latinised version of their ancient ''Vedas''.{{sfn|Aitamurto|2016|p=50}}

The first Veda comprises the ''Book of the Wisdom of Perun'' (Сантии Веды Перуна, ''Santy Vedy Peruna''; also translated as Книга Мудрости Перуна, ''Kniga Mudrosti Peruna'') and the ''Saga ob Inglingakh'', a Russian version of the [[Old Norse]] ''[[Ynglinga saga]]''.<ref name="Slavo-Aryan Vedas">List of the ''Slavo-Aryan Vedas'' as it appeared on their [https://web.archive.org/web/20170627212200/http://slavyanskievedy.ru/ official Russian website as of 27 June 2017].</ref> The second Veda comprises the ''Book of Light'' (Книга Света, ''Kniga Sveta'') and the first part of the ''Word of Wisdom of the Wise Velimudra'' (Слово Мудрости Волхва Велимудра, ''Slovo Mudrosti Volkhva Velimudra'').<ref name="Slavo-Aryan Vedas"/> The third Veda comprises the ''Ynglism, the Ancient Faith of Slavic and Aryan Folks'' (Инглиiзмъ, Древняя Вера Славянскихъ и Арiйскихъ Народовъ; ''Ingliizm, Drevnyaya Vera Slavyanskikh i Ariyskikh Narodov'') and the second part of the ''Word of Wisdom''.<ref name="Slavo-Aryan Vedas"/> The fourth and last Veda of Ynglism contains the ''Source of Life'' (Источник Жизни, ''Istochnik Zhizni'') and the ''White Way'' (Белый Путь, ''Bely Put'').<ref name="Slavo-Aryan Vedas"/> A fifth book, though not part of the canonical Vedas, is ''Slavic Worldview, Confirmation of the Book of Light'' (Славянское Мiропонiмание, Подтверждение Книги Света; ''Slavyanskoye Miroponimaniye, Podtverzhdeniye Knigi Sveta'').<ref name="Slavo-Aryan Vedas"/> After they were published by Khinevich, the Ynglist ''Vedas'' were sold in many thousands of copies.{{sfnm|1a1=Aitamurto|1y=2016|1p=63|2a1=Golovneva|2y=2018|2p=342}} According to Golovneva, such popularity of the books proves that they are "far from being marginal", as they represent "the basis for a certain kind of popular knowledge of ancient history".{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|p=342}}

Besides their ''Vedas'', the Ynglists also rely upon the ''[[Book of Veles]]'',{{sfn|Golovneva|2018|p=342}} and also upon various [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] scriptures, including the ''[[Secret Gospel of John]]'' and the ''New Testament of the Holy Apostle Thomas'' discovered in 1945.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2017a|p=98}} Apart from Aleksandr Khinevich, another important Russian author of Ynglist literature is Aleksey V. Trekhlebov (''[[volkhv]]'' Vedagor), one of the earliest and closest disciples of the former.{{sfnm|1a1=Prokopyuk|1y=2017|1p=41|2a1=Golovneva|2y=2018|2p=341}} Trekhlebov came from the study of [[Indian religions]], and he is a [[yogi]];{{sfnm|1a1=Aitamurto|1y=2016|1p=51|2a1=Prokopyuk|2y=2017|2p=41}} he claimed to have received initiation in [[Nepal]] from a high [[lama]], who advised him to seek the truth in his own native traditions.{{sfn|Aitamurto|2016|p=51}} He has dedicated his life to the "spiritual and moral education of the Slavs, the spiritual revival of the Russians towards mental health and enlightenment"; for this purpose, he has written various Ynglist books, including ''The Blasphemers of Finist the Bright Falcon'' (Кощуны Финиста Ясного Сокола, ''Koshchuny Finista Yasnogo Sokola'').{{sfn|Prokopyuk|2017|p=41}} In [[Ukraine]], a notable spreader of Ynglist ideas was Volodymyr Kurovskyi, who contributed to the making of the documentary ''Igra Bogov'' ("Play of Gods").{{sfn|Aitamurto|2016|p=51}}