The spiritual traditions Rodnovery seeks to restore are ancient — the pre-Christian religion of the Slavic peoples, practiced across Eastern, Western, and Southern Slavic lands before the Christianization of those regions between the 9th and 13th centuries. Those traditions were not erased. They carried forward through folk custom: in the seasonal festivals, in the names given to rivers and mountains, in the household rites, in the harvest songs. Christianity became the official religion. The older ways stayed in practice.
The organized modern revival began taking shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rooted in Slavic Romanticism and a growing scholarly and cultural interest in pre-Christian Slavic heritage. Active practitioner communities appeared in Poland and Ukraine in the 1930s and 1940s. The Soviet period suppressed organized religious activity, but Rodnover ideas persisted in émigré communities in Western countries throughout the mid-20th century.
The movement emerged publicly and grew rapidly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Formal organizations were established across Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and the Czech Republic through the 1990s and 2000s. Today Rodnovery is practiced by tens of thousands of people across the Slavic world and in diaspora communities worldwide, with academic estimates suggesting the number may be considerably higher. For a full account of the tradition's beliefs, practices, and contemporary communities, see the Slavic Native Faith about page and the frequently asked questions.