Comments on: Exploring the Russian Religious Fringe

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:26:55 +0000

Part Five is up now -

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090817/155832205.html

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:28:32 +0000

You guys and your semantics.

Thanks Kolya for the link on Kashpirovsky. That guy could really make people fall over.

By: Kolya

Kolya — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:47:43 +0000

You are not the only one, poemless. My understanding of the word “fringe” was quite similar. Live and learn.

By: poemless

poemless — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:32:40 +0000

Apologies if I’ve offended anyone.

I’ve been using the word “fringe” not in a derogatory or judgemental way, not to mean “cooky”, “crazy”, “illegitimate” or “outdated”, but to mean something on the periphery of the mainstream. That’s it. That was my understanding of its meaning.

By: Kolya

Kolya — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:27:57 +0000

Emily, thanks for your informative comment. Do Old Believers themselves also consider that the Skoptsy are Old Believers? For instance, the Unitarians came from Protestant Christians, but now without denying their origin few Christians (as well as Unitarian themselves) consider them Christians.

And thank you for writing about the word “fringe.” I was not aware that it is clearly meant in a negative way. In my mind it didn’t necessarily have a negative connotation because I have friends who describe themselves as belonging to the fringe or being part of the fringe–and they say it without irony, but simply as a statement of fact. (To clarify: the context under which they use “fringe” has nothing to do with religion.)

By: Emily B.

Emily B. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:01:02 +0000

To answer the question about whether Skoptsy (self-castrators) are Old Believers, yes, they are. Old Belief encompassses a wide range of religious communities. Skoptsy emerged as a distinct religious community out of the larger prism of Old Belief, and never accounted for more an extremely small fraction of Old Believers.

And “fringe,” for the record, carries a clear negative connotation. “Religious minority” is by far a more objective term. Among academics, the term “new religious movements” is most often employed when speaking about the plethora of religious groups that emerged in the past century. The Soviet Union, for its part, always preferred the term “sect.” It’s still the most popular descriptor in Russia–applied to everything from Adventism to the White Brotherhood.

By: Candide

Candide — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:55:38 +0000

“…for me “fringe” does not necessarily have a negative connotation.”

That was not entirely “intellectually honest” of you, Kolya.

By: Candide

Candide — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Fringe means cooky.

By: Khabar

Khabar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:19:57 +0000

I looked into onelook.com dictionary:
the fringe=social group holding marginal or extreme views, фронда in short.

By: Kolya

Kolya — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:03:02 +0000

I guess some of us interpret “fringe” differently. Perhaps it’s bad English on my part, but for me “fringe” does not necessarily have a negative connotation.