Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia traces the history of occult thought and practice from its origins in private salons to its popularity in turn-of-the-century mass culture. In lucid prose, Julia Mannherz examines the ferocious public debates of the 1870s on higher dimensional mathematics and the workings of seance phenomena, discusses the world of cheap instruction manuals and popular occult journals, and looks at haunted houses, which brought together the rural settings and the urban masses that obsessed over them. In addition, Mannherz looks at reactions of Russian Orthodox theologians to the occult.

In spite of its prominence, the role of the occult in turn-of-the-century Russian culture has been largely ignored, if not actively written out of histories of the modern state. For specialists and students of Russian history, culture, and science, as well as those generally interested in the occult, Mannherz's fascinating study remedies this gap and returns the occult to its rightful place in the popular imagination of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian society.

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Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia traces the history of occult thought and practice from its origins in private salons to its popularity in turn-of-the-century mass culture. In lucid prose, Julia Mannherz examines the ferocious public debates of the 1870s on higher dimensional mathematics and the workings of seance phenomena, discusses the world of cheap instruction manuals and popular occult journals, and looks at haunted houses, which brought together the rural settings and the urban masses that obsessed over them. In addition, Mannherz looks at reactions of Russian Orthodox theologians to the occult.

In spite of its prominence, the role of the occult in turn-of-the-century Russian culture has been largely ignored, if not actively written out of histories of the modern state. For specialists and students of Russian history, culture, and science, as well as those generally interested in the occult, Mannherz's fascinating study remedies this gap and returns the occult to its rightful place in the popular imagination of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian society.

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Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

by Julia Mannherz
Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia

by Julia Mannherz

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Overview

Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia traces the history of occult thought and practice from its origins in private salons to its popularity in turn-of-the-century mass culture. In lucid prose, Julia Mannherz examines the ferocious public debates of the 1870s on higher dimensional mathematics and the workings of seance phenomena, discusses the world of cheap instruction manuals and popular occult journals, and looks at haunted houses, which brought together the rural settings and the urban masses that obsessed over them. In addition, Mannherz looks at reactions of Russian Orthodox theologians to the occult.

In spite of its prominence, the role of the occult in turn-of-the-century Russian culture has been largely ignored, if not actively written out of histories of the modern state. For specialists and students of Russian history, culture, and science, as well as those generally interested in the occult, Mannherz's fascinating study remedies this gap and returns the occult to its rightful place in the popular imagination of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian society.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781609090647
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Publication date: 10/15/2012
Series: NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 316
File size: 7 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Julia Mannherz is university lecturer and tutorial fellow in modern history at the Oriel College, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 3

1 The Laboratory in the Salon: Spiritualism Comes to Russia 21

2 Occult Science and the Russian Public 48

3 The Occult Metropolis Putting the Hidden to Practical Use 79

4 Servants, Priests, and Haunted Houses 111

5 Popular Occultism and the Orthodox Church 140

6 The Occult at Court: Mariia Puare and the Fate of Occultism during the Great War 163

Conclusion 189

Notes 195

Selected Bibliography 249

Index 269

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