'Russian Christ Will Bring a World without Wars': About the Illusion of Liberation and the Bankruptcy of the Pacifist Utopia of the Vissarionists

• In Event: Different Faces of Liberation in Polish Cinema: Between Politics, Religion, and Patriarchy

Abstract

During my speech, I intend to refer to the documentary film "Siberian guide", which I co-directed (together with Maciej Migas, 2005). As we read in the description: „In the early 90s Siergiej Torop, a traffic policeman, was on a trolley bus and, as he claims, experienced a revelation. He understood that he was yet another embodiment of Christ. He adopted the name of Vissarion. Together with his followers in Siberian taiga he built the City of Sun which is to give rise to a new civilization. The film’s protagonist, Igor Novikov, is one of the five thousand followers of Vissarion and his disciple” (https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/7924/the-syberian-guide).
The case study of the Last Testament Church, also known as the 'Vissarionist' sect (1999-2004) was also the starting point for all my subsequent research. The aforementioned research project enabled the development of tools for broader measurement of the dimensions of post-Soviet religious identity in autobiographical narratives.
Since the making of the documentary, the conditions for research, the political and social situation have seriously changed in Russia. Repressions intensified, discourse homogenised, and the religious landscape radically changed even before the 2022 aggression against Ukraine. The categories of 'liberation' also took on a different meaning.
From this perspective, the evolution of the religious group's pacific utopia seems extremely interesting. Vissarion was arrested by the Federal Security Service - FSB (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/22/cult-leader-vissarion-reincarnation-jesus-arrested-siberia-russia). I intend, therefore, to talk about the identity strategies of the group's members during and after the time of directing the documentary.

Author

• Jedrzej Morawiecki, U of Wrocław (Poland)