Russian cosmism and Western esotericism

The article is devoted to the original cultural phenomenon of Russian cosmism. One of the methodological approaches forstudying of Russian cosmism now is to use the conceptual apparatus of esoteric studies. A. Faivre, W. Hanegraаf , A. Verslius,J. Kripal and other scholars revealed that esotericism is the third important area of Western culture along with science andreligion. «Western esotericism» is a relatively recently constructed model by scholars. «Russian cosmism» is also a young scientif cmodel that gained the strength of the messianic myth during the years of Gorbachev"s «perestroika». Western esotericism isknowledge rejected during the Enlightenment, which used to be an integral part of science, religion and philosophy. Worldviewsof Russian cosmists until the end of the 80s of the 20th century could not be part of the of cial Soviet culture for ideologicalreasons. Western esotericism is woven into various spheres of culture, but independent of them. Like Western esotericism,Russian cosmism is associated with various f elds of culture: science, philosophy, religion, art, but is not reduced to them. Thestudy of Russian cosmism in the context of the history of esoteric thought reduces the concepts of Russian cosmists to theesoteric concepts of Russian and Western esotericists, while little attention is paid to the scientif c direction in Russian cosmism.