RUSSIA Those who await the “White Tsar” in Russia

According to some figures in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, the Russian occult audience and interest in esoteric literature are reportedly on the rise. And colorful prophecies about the advent of a new mythological figure who will supposedly “reunify and elevate Holy Rus” are being spread on local web platforms.

Moscow () – Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, more and more Russians are turning to fortune-tellers and necromancers, especially to search for relatives who have disappeared at the front. The audience for these occult services has increased twenty-fold, and interest in esoteric literature has more than doubled. YouTube clips offer an endless series of predictions, with dozens of videos a day on the topics that stir the conscience of Russians, on when the war will end and what the future fate of Russia will be, right up to the Last Judgement.

Bulgarian prophetess Baba Vanga, Polish-Soviet illusionist and mentalist Wolf Messing, Nostradamus and Stalin, Saint Matrona and Blessed Pelageja, and even the recently deceased politician Vladimir Žirinovsky are invoked as “experts,” along with a plethora of lesser-known rune-tellers and tarot spirits, willing to predict anything for the public in order to collect the precious digital smiles, or the even more coveted donations.

In this climate of unbridled neo-spiritualism, colourful prophecies about the coming of the so-called “White Tsar”, who is to “reunify and elevate Holy Rus”, preparing all of humanity for the “Second Coming of the Redeemer”, are increasingly spreading on Russian Internet platforms. Supporters of this mythological figure draw on the sacred scriptures of various religions, from the Bible to the Koran and the Upanishads, but also on the sacred traditions of the Church Fathers or mystical writers, as in the Legend of Tsarevich Svetomir by the symbolist Vjačeslav Ivanov, to science fiction films such as The Matrix and Buratino.

The “free Adventist and theologian” Oleg Zigankov holds an “open seminar” on Yandex.Dzen with 135,000 followers, in which he describes the mission of the coming Tsar, who will be installed “directly by God.” He will be a great reformer, who will first of all put order in the Orthodox Church itself, expelling all “false hierarchs, heretics and warmongers.” Under the White Tsar “Russia will rise from the dead, and the whole world will be amazed”; first of all “Siberia will be transfigured, but this Russia will not last long before the Apocalypse.” Quoting Greek and Russian saints, from Leo the Wise to Theophanes of Poltava and the monk Abel, Žigankov rereads the history of the imperial dynasties of the Rajurikids and the Romanovs, specifying that the new ruler will re-establish Russia “within the borders of the Soviet Union,” where instead of the communist system there will be “a society similar to the communes of the early Christians of the Apostolic Church.”

Other “exegetes” of the future confirm the thesis of the free theologian, such as the popular blogger Tatiana Arensburg, according to whom the future kingdom will also go beyond the borders of the USSR, “gathering together the Slavic peoples scattered throughout the earth like the tribes of Israel.” Tatiana guarantees that the new “spiritual leader will give a new interpretation of the doctrine of Christ, using the intellect of the new current sciences, to reach a completely new type of society.” Three years ago, actress Maria Šukšina shocked the audience by announcing from the stage that in 2024, exactly during the feast of the Nativity of Mary that Russians celebrate on September 11, the White Tsar would appear, according to the prophecies of the Orthodox elders.

Some believe that salvation will come from the House of Romanov, according to the female line, a figure that is currently hidden from everyone, but “all Russian people will immediately recognise it with their hearts,” says Žigankov. This is how the family tree descends from the last Tsar Nicholas II, whose assassination by the Soviets in July 1918 more than a century ago is being commemorated these days. The cry Nie molči, Tsaria kliči! (‘Don’t be silent, call the Tsar!’) is heard, and Vladimir Putin is warned: despite all his efforts, not even his war will be enough to stop the advent of the new Tsar of apocalyptic Russia.