Ufological narratives, although by no means an invention of the 1980s, became particularly visible in Russia during Perestroika and in the 1990s so much so that it would be impossible to create any sufficiently comprehensive picture of Russian spirituality and Russian culture of the period in general without considering ufology as its important part.
Soviet and Post-Soviet Ufology and Religion: The 1980s and the 1990s
2022. Cultures of New Age in Late and Post-Soviet Russia (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz)
Narratives about Satanic Conspiracy in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature
In the talk, I analyze Satanic conspiracy narratives of the first quarter of the twentieth century and use computer analyzis to identify continuity and differences between them and contemporary conspiracy narratives in Russia. I argue that during the revival of conspiracy narratives after the fall of the Soviet Union they integrated new elements, namely ideas of anti-cult movement and anti-Western rhetoric established during the Soviet era. Nowadays, these narratives continue playing an important role in Russian domestic and international politics.
Statement for the Roundtable Science and the Impossible
What is the impossible? In this brief roundtable statement, I draw attention to the fact that the limits of the impossible are culturally defined and that, given how strongly we are conditioned to perceive the world in a certain way, the impossible becomes something that is out of reach not simply theoretically but also experientially. Psychological research in the fields like inattentional blindness hints at the mechanisms through which the impossible becomes imperceivable.