The amazing thing about people who put together a crude world view is: How gigantic a lot of weird things they have to believe in order for the internal logic to remain stable. And because most people get hooked on an idea that has already been formulated, something else is astonishing: how incredibly willing they are to accept inhuman ideologies as intellectual by-catch, as long as they are convinced of a core idea.
The two journalists Emeli Glaser and Dennis Müller can demonstrate this very clearly in their podcast, using two women who have joined the Anastasia cult. It primarily revolves around the originality of country life, self-sufficiency with organic products and strong solidarity. One of the two protagonists got in there as a young woman, felt safe and realized just in time what was actually going on. The other grew up in a family of Anastasia supporters. It was only when her stepfather separated from her mother, despite the immense importance of family in this community, that the teenager began to question the ideology. Central to the Anastasia cult are: racism, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism, belief in conspiracies. In Germany there are strong overlaps with the lateral thinker and the Reichsbürger milieu, with the scenes of corona deniers and school dropouts.
Organic farming as a cover for anti-democratic activities
The Anastasia cult originated in Russia. Vladimir Megre, as an entrepreneur one of the post-Soviet soldiers of fortune, wrote the ten-part book series between 1996 and 2010 The Ringing Cedars of Russia released. In it he himself, as a literary character, has dialogues with a fairy-like woman named Anastasia about all areas of life. The texts propagate an extremely close-to-nature, pre-industrial existence, as it were. The books are cheesy and right-wing esoteric. The argumentation is always anti-Semitic and anti-democratic, various conspiracy stories are used to explain the world. Megre has built a flourishing merchandising company around this cult cosmos.
Emeli Glaser, Dennis Müller and other colleagues are doing research in the Allgäu, in the Harz, in the Chiemgau and in Austria. Often they come across closed doors, but some open. In the end, even Megre speaks out for himself. What he and others say is often self-explanatory. Nevertheless, the many classifications by connoisseurs of the various milieus that come together in the Anastasia cult under the guise of organic farming are essential.
The six-part podcast Soul Catchers: The Anastasia Cult emerged from a project of the German School of Journalism, with it the Bayerischer Rundfunk begins a multi-season audio documentary series about sects, cults and religious movements. A second soul catcherseason has already been announced, which will take place in a bizarre, catholic milieu in the environment of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. should lead.
Soul Catcher: The Anastasia Cult, BR media library.