FOLK RELIGION OF RUSSIA: "BETWEEN" PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY
The article is an attempt to conceptualize the importance of ancient Rus religion. Taking into consideration the specific character of Slavic paganism, the author points out that the concept “natural community or household religion” conveys the fullness of all its definitions. As the result of the Baptism of Rus, Orthodoxy subdued the pagan beliefs, but it did not interfere to preserve tribal traditions. Orthodoxy was to be the height which the people's worldly wisdom should reach. Thus, between Orthodoxy and paganism as two mutually complementary but not connected parts of one and the same Russian faith the stages of people’s awareness are found. Folk religion of Rus-Russia is nothing but the intermediate phenomenon, the process to average Orthodoxy with paganism.