Authors

Maria Engström¹;  ¹ Uppsala University, Sweden

Discussion

The paper focuses on the influence of the dark Soviet underground on the radical conservative political and artistic communities in contemporary Russia. Using the central text of the Soviet occulture Orientation—North, conceived by philosopher and one of the Iuzhinskii Circle founders Geidar Dzhemal (1947–2016), I will discuss the concept of “North” in contemporary Russian political theology. According to Dzhemal, there is a direct connection between the world of ideas and that of politics; by way of radical political acts, one influences the dimension of the metaphysical and the sacred. “North” and “Death” as metaphors of radical protest against the Evil Absolute are also widely evoked by the representatives of Russian alt-art, e.g. Aleksei Belyaev-Guintovt and Andrei Molodkin.