THE CONCEPT OF PRIMITIVE THEISM IN THE RUSSIAN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The paper dwells on a formation of the primitive theism concept in religious and philosophical ideas of the Russian Empire in the late XIX - beginning of XX century. This stage in development of the Eastern European religious studies remains poorly studied nowadays. Much attention is paid to the fact, that before the establishment of the Soviet government, Russian religious studies had its own rich scientific traditions and serious theoretical groundwork in the concept of primitive theism, which carried a great potential for its future development. The author describes the main points of this concept in the pre-revolutionary Russian religious studies, dwelling on the landmark works of several scientists. Necessity of critical rethinking of the pre-revolutionary heritage of religious sciences in the context of the modern religion studies is stated in the conclusion.