NEO-PAGANISM OF THE CRIMEAN KARAITES: GENESIS AND CURRENT STATE

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the study is to analyze the history of the emergence and development of the phenomenon in the culture of the Karaites of Eastern Europe, which can be described as neo-paganism. Research methodology is based on the scientific and special-historical methods and the growth of the historical analysis. The article is based on the principles of historicism, scientific objectivity and problem-chronological approach. The scholar novelty of the article is in the fact that for the first time an attempt has been made to comprehensively study the phenomenon of neo-paganism of the Crimean Karaites in its development, from its origin to the present state. In the same way, for the first time it attempts to single out all the elements on which the neo-pagan discourse of the Crimean Karaites is based, to determine the time and circumstance of the appearance or the first mention of each of them. Conclusions. It was found that the search for or invention of pagan traditions in the culture of the Crimean Karaites was an irreversible and logical consequence of the campaign to absolutize the importance of Turkish heritage and popularize the idea of exclusively Turkish origin of the Crimean Karaites, conducted by Karaite leader S. Shapshal in the 1930s among the Karaites of the Second Polish Republic. The source of inspiration for authors who have been looking for traces of paganism in the culture of the Karaites of Eastern Europe could be materials published in the interwar Karaite press, including the Polish-language magazine "Myśl Karaimska" published in Vilno (contemporary Vilnius), and on the editorial policy of which S. Shapshal had a great influence. However, as can be seen, Shapshal is not always personally responsible for the interpretation of various elements of Karaite culture as pagan and for the emergence of new pseudo-pagan elements. It has also been shown that not all elements of Karaite culture used as evidence of the paganism of their ancestors are late inventions or borrowings, but may be traces of the cultural diffusion of Karaites and Turkish peoples during the long existence of Karaites in the Turkish environment.