Authentism, incorporated as the Tezaurus Non-Confessional Spiritual Union, is a Rodnovernew spiritual philosophy and psychological order originally founded in 1984 by Sergey Petrovich Semenov in Saint Petersburg. Members of the order are called Tezaurians, and they prefer not to qualify Authentism as a "religion", but rather as a "worldview". The term "Authentism" derives from the Latinwordauthenticus, meaning "authentic, self-made, self-consistent". According to the doctrine, authenticity is acquired when one discovers his true divine nature, God-given and immortal.
Beliefs
The Authentist movement is based on the teachings of the Russian Veda, considered an expression of Slavic paganism, Russian cosmism and psychoanalysis. The aim of the philosophical practice is to reveal one's own true spiritual essence, which is identical with God, Rod — which is viewed as the complementary unity of Belobog/Sventovid and Chernobog/Veles — and therefore the unity of mankind and God, which characterises Russia's special mission opposed to Western individualism.
History
Sergey Petrovich Semenov was born in Saint Petersburg in 1952, and graduated in 1976 at the First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg, then First Medical Institute of Leningrad. In 1984, Semenov founded the "Studio of Psychic Culture", which one year later was transformed into the Mir club. The club was engaged in the dissemination of the Authentist ideas and published samizdat literature. In 1987 the club was closed by authorities, according to Semenov for its engagement in politics, and continued in informal ways. The original club had members focused on both ethnic Russian and Jewish cultures, organised respectively in the "Rus'" and "Sinai" subgroups. In 1989 the two groups diverged, and Semenov made a choice in favour of the "Rus'", which eventually developed into "Tezaurus". While Tezaurus is not registered as a religious organisation by the Russian government, in the 1990s it established educational, medical and political structures, all of which are recognised by the government.
