Historical conditions of new religion movements formation in Russia

The article covers the formation history of new religions in the 19th centuryand New religious movements (NRM), arisen in second half of the 20th century as the brightest phenomenon in the religious sphere,which caused a set of contradictory interpretations. Historical facts remove some contradictions as the tendentious perception of thisphenomenon is minimised at the expense of the collected materials, field data, generalizations, comparisons with old religions and, as awhole at the expense of a simplified prospect - what was then, how it was transformed and what the situation is now. The specificity ofthe sociocultural space religions develop in, certainly, defines the reasons and formation course, the specificity of new religion forms.The formation history of new religions of the 19th century has its own features, as well as conditions for NRM formation and theirdevelopment in Russia are specific. Certain kinds of NRM developed in various ways, for example, Christian movements, which havearisen in line with Protestant sects (different charismatic groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses,etc.) were developing gradually, but with confidence, for Russia, as the sects members say, is an evangelized country - the doctrine ofChrist is accepted by many inhabitants. Other kinds of NRM, for example neo-orientalistic, were also actively developing during the''religious agiotage'' in the 1990s, but gradually their growth slowed down, and the number of their participants remains approximately atthe same level lately. The percent of leaving NRM is also high, that is, individuals receive what they needed and do not participate in themovement life anymore. NRM involve people not only by the religious components - dogma, practices, but also by the structure thatgives identity, the knowledge close to psychology, courses on quasi-religious themes, and so forth. The article covers the data on sometypes of domestic religious movements. The history of formation of the Church of Last Testament, Anastasia's movement is described inbrief. The history of formation of new religious movements testifies that the processes connected with secularization are ambiguous,religious senses and symbols are still urgent, on the contrary to what many social theorists predicted. Together with societytransformation, the character of religiousness faces changes, which should correspond to the inquiries of the modern person rejecting theglobal authorities, individualised, believing in meta-ideas, a little disoriented, pragmatically oriented, but still needing limiting sensesand answers to "eternal" questions.

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