Totalitarian Sects within the Current Political Processes

Abstract

This article studies the phenomenon of totalitarian sects entering politics. It concerns the participation of totalitarian sects in the political processes and election campaigns with the aim of getting into power, as well as the attempts of some political figures to rely on the infrastructure of totalitarian sects in order to promote themselves in the ruling structures. The author summarizes the works of Russian and international social thinkers and religious scholars, studying totalitarian sects as a relatively new social and religious phenomenon, supplementing and developing their findings. In particular, the following features are recognized as the key characteristics of totalitarian sects. A relatively recent foundation — usually with the founder still alive. A charismatic leader — the founder or successor, who has unquestionable authority. Closed information environment, filtering any external information signals. Careful regulation of the adherents' life, as well as their double code language, allowing them to recognize others in a “friend-or-foe” mode, which likens totalitarian sects to criminal communities. A rigid hierarchy that doses information about the organizations' goals to its members at different levels of initiation; adherents' compulsory financial participation and preaching activities. The author analyzes the promotion of totalitarian sects in politics using examples from Ukrainian and Russian political practices of the post-Soviet period. In particular, he studies the political activities of such structures as the Livets Ord (lit. “Word of Life”) Baptist Church, the Scientology Church, the Embassy of God sect (Sunday Adelaja), the Unification Church (Sun Myung Moon), the Living Word Baptist Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Last Covenant Church, Slavic neopagan groups and radical Islamist sects. The network community formed around the Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation also possesses the attributes of a totalitarian sect. Particular attention is paid to specific examples of the political involvement of totalitarian sects and their influence at different levels of government in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation, as well as the resulting damage. Considering the scale of totalitarian sects' activities in Russia — hundreds of such organizations are involved, up to 1 million people in total — the author emphasizes their use by foreign intelligence services, which poses a threat to Russia's national security.