Russia is witnessing a striking rise in the popularity of fortune-telling, occult services, and esoteric practices. Self-professed witches, shamans, and clairvoyants, alongside more conventional astrologers and psychics, flood social media and appear in popular TV shows. Television programs, such as “Battle of Psychics,” “Reality Show,” or “Incredible People,” feature psychic competitions and invite astrologers and clairvoyants to comment on national events. Telegram channels devoted to astrology, magic, and spiritual counseling have garnered hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Master classes and certificate programs in occult practices have also attracted a growing number of paying participants.
Russian courts have seen an increasing number of fraud cases involving psychic services. One widely reported case in Moscow involved a woman who paid 67 million rubles (nearly $1 million) to a mystic to lift a curse. The growing popularity of mysticism and occultism, both officially condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church, has prompted heated debates in the State Duma since 2014. In the latest episode, MP Alexander Spiridonov called for a total ban on commercial spiritual services that often amount to large-scale swindling schemes defrauding thousands of people in 2023. Although similar legislative debates erupted in the Duma in 2014 and 2017, no bans followed, leading journalists to speculate that Russian MPs are wary of potential supernatural retaliation.
The occult industry in Russia has grown into a multi-billion-dollar sector. According to the virtual cash register provider for online businesses, AtolOnline, the market for occult services in Russia reached an estimated 2.4 trillion rubles in 2024. To put this in perspective, in the same year, Russians spent 2.1 trillion rubles on food. The industry is also growing: market analysis firm TAdviser estimates that in 2024, the demand for magic attributes rose 34% from 2023.
According to the VTSOM national phone survey, between 2015 and 2022, the share of people willing to give mysticism the benefit of a doubt rose from under 10% to a quarter of all respondents. While older people and women are more likely to place trust in occultism and mysticism, a 2023 survey of businesspeople by IFORS Research shows that one in three owners of small and medium-sized enterprises believe in the efficacy of occult practices, and nearly two-thirds have consulted fortune tellers at least once in the past. Businesspeople consult occult forces for guidance on hiring, workforce management, new contacts, market analysis, and relations with business partners. Taken together, these diverse sources demonstrate that esoterism has become a visible, dynamic component of Russian social and economic life.
Why do Russians Appear so Hungry for the Occult?
Observers have offered a variety of explanations for this esoteric surge. Journalists often interpret the rise of occult practices as a symptom of collective anxiety produced by war, sanctions, economic instability, and the erosion of predictable social routines. A reporter for Kyiv Post cited various Russian news stories highlighting the popularity of queries about fortune-teller predictions on the outcome of the war in Ukraine, enchanted military kits, and frontline shamans. The Moscow Times has linked the rise of mysticism, among other factors, to war stress and public apathy; this thesis is reinforced by the fact that Ukraine has also experienced a parallel surge in mysticism, according to the reports of popular internet searches. Such arguments about collective anxiety were first offered during the COVID-19 pandemic when interest in the occult was interpreted as an attempt to “regain a sense of control over the situation … and adapt to it”, or even as a degradation of the population against the backdrop of rapid technological development.
The occult industry in Russia has grown into a multi-billion-dollar sector.
The Soviet legacy also provides an alternative explanatory framework. During Soviet times, materialist ideology suppressed many forms of divination and magic and drove them underground. Nevertheless, these traditions persisted and evolved in secret, reasserting themselves publicly once perestroika had loosened state controls. The post-communist transition left individuals to navigate the new world of market economy, inequality, and political change; in this atmosphere, esoterism emerged as a personal coping strategy and an alternative way to interpret rapid change and acute uncertainty. The late 1980s to early 1990s were marked by the burgeoning of esoteric literature, the national prominence of extrasensory healers like Allan Chumak and Anatoly Kashpirovsky, and the rapid proliferation of spiritual organizations. These formed a new cultural template where spiritual and supernatural practices could coexist with scientific or secular worldviews. Russians often exhibit “dual belief systems,” in which scientific rationality and mystical intuition operate in separate cognitive domains without conflicting with each other.
Superficially, the current esoteric boom resembles the post-communist transition period in that Russians once again face institutional disorientation, economic volatility, and uncertainty about the future. The war in Ukraine, mobilization, sanctions, and declining access to reliable information contribute to a sense of social disruption and uncertainty. Yet, the political circumstances could not be more different. While late Soviet—and even early post-Soviet—esoterism was a symbol of rediscovered public voices and forms self-expression, current trends signal a retreat from public self-expression to private consumption domains.
The global decline in rational beliefs provides a third explanatory framework for the growing popularity of mysticism. According to this perspective, the rise of state propaganda and “fake news” in Russia reflects a broader postmodern trend, where people reject the idea of a single objective truth, blurring the line between objective facts and subjective experiences. Russia exemplifies the post-truth epistemology in an acute form. Russian state propaganda frequently undermines its own claims by shifting narratives, making contradictory statements, or manufacturing “facts.” This discursive volatility breeds a suspicion in its audiences that any narrative exists solely to serve someone’s objective, that contradictory facts may simultaneously be true, and that science is a tool of ideology. If official pronouncements cannot be trusted, a psychic’s prediction becomes just another competing narrative. Increased repression and tighter state control over many domains of cultural expression gives an additional impetus for mysticism as a form of private retreat from the increasingly ideological public realm. Some analysts believe the Putin regime may quietly welcome the population’s turn to fortune tellers, hoping that a widespread belief in fate and mysticism may promote political passivity.
While late Soviet […] esoterism was a symbol of rediscovered public voices and forms of self-expression, current trends signal a retreat from public self-expression to private consumption domains.
In Russia and post-Soviet countries, belief in the occult is more prevalent than in many other parts of the world. According to Boris Gershman’s study of witchcraft, based on Pew Research Center surveys covering 95 countries and over 140,000 respondents, Russians’ endorsement of supernatural causation was as high as 50% of respondents, compared to a global average of roughly 40% from 2008–2017. In a comparative analysis, Gershman finds that such beliefs are positively correlated with weaker institutions, communal conformity norms, and in-group favoritism—indicating that where formal governance and social trust are lacking, occult beliefs may serve as informal mechanisms of social control. This framework suggests that Russians turn to fortune-tellers not because they have abandoned rationality but because rational systems—science-based education, healthcare, state institutions—appear unreliable or unresponsive, prompting individuals to seek alternative mechanisms of economic advancement, healing, and emotional belonging.
While socio-cultural explanations may suggest a direct link between the resurgence of esoteric practices and war-related anxiety, a closer look at the internet search data reveals different dynamics. Analyses of Google Trends (Figure 1) show that, while searches for “tarot,” for example, increased in the first months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these searches had already been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, outpacing older search terms like “horoscope” or “fortune telling.” While traditional occult vocabularies—omens, dreams, folk rituals—continue to circulate, new terms associated with global New Age content have become more prominent. Yandex WordStat data reveal that while interest in more traditional practices, such as fortunetelling and horoscopes, fluctuates seasonally, peaking around New Year and Orthodox Christmas, these oscillating patterns are not indicative of any long-term upward trend. By sharp contrast, tarot searches surged dramatically during pandemic lockdowns, reached a peak in mid-2022, and then stabilized at levels far above those of the previous decade. These patterns do not support the war-focused narrative: the growth of esoterism predates the war.
Figure 1. Google Trends data on searches in Russia from 01/01/2014 to 22/02/2022 for “horoscope” (blue), “fortune telling” (red), and “tarot” (yellow). The three notes represent the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of two military draft cycles.
The Political Economy of Esoterism
Although historical legacies and global analogies point to culture and social psychology as a root cause of Russia’s esoteric surge, a closer look at the several distinguishing features of the contemporary Russian esoteric landscape points towards socio-economic explanations. These features relate to the demographic profile of practitioners and consumers, the economic logic of import substitution as a driver for consumer demand, the gendered structure of the labor market, and the transformative role of digital commerce.
One striking novelty in contemporary Russian esoteric practices is the significant involvement of educated professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners using astrology, tarot, and numerology to guide decisions on hiring, conflict resolution, and business strategy. Companies even advertise jobs for corporate astrologers, although most esoteric practitioners are hired as outside consultants or HR specialists. This turn to irrationality, however, may be a forced choice. Journalists point out that under sanctions and economic isolation, professional consulting firms have disappeared or become prohibitively expensive for many Russian businesses. Data on market trends, competitors, or regulatory changes in Russia are becoming less accessible, and legitimate expertise has either emigrated or become politically compromised. In this environment, esoterism fills a functional vacuum. Esotericism promises an alternative framework for decision-making, but it also offers emotional assurance, which can be particularly valuable in the increasingly uncertain environment.
Another distinctive feature is the profound changes in consumer markets and behavior caused by Russia’s increasing economic isolation and import-substitution strategy. Economic sanctions and travel restrictions have meant that families with disposable income have lost access to many luxury brands, including cars, appliances, consumer electronics, jewelry, and clothing. Many vacation destinations became inaccessible due to visa restrictions and the availability of air travel. shrunk. Consequently, theories of consumer behavior predict a shift towards lower-order discretionary spending. With many foreign entertainment options now unavailable, the void is being filled by domestic entertainment that, among other things, includes popular esoteric TV shows “Battle of Psychics,” “Reality Show,” “Incredible People,” and public talks by famous occult personalities.
One striking novelty in contemporary Russian esoteric practices is the significant involvement of educated professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners using astrology, tarot, and numerology to guide decisions on hiring, conflict resolution, and business strategy.
Digital commercialization further distinguishes Russia’s current esoteric landscape. Whereas the popularization of mysticism in the 1990s happened through television, newspapers, and book publishing, today’s esoteric content spreads through digital platforms that vastly expand reach and promise higher profits for creators. In both periods, esoterism presented a business opportunity, but they differ in scale and technological sophistication: platforms, such as Telegram, have become indispensable tools for building audiences, creating communities, and monetizing spiritual content. Practitioners use “freemium” models in which free daily horoscopes or general forecasts encourage users towards paid personal consultations and subscription-based services. They borrow marketing strategies from the wellness and coaching industries, like aspirational messaging, staged authenticity, lifestyle appeals, and complementary service deliveries. The rise of e-commerce dramatically lowers entry costs into this personal service market, enabling new creators to reach thousands of potential clients with minimal investment. This technological infrastructure has emerged out of a very thin regulatory framework for self-employed content providers who simultaneously fall into cultural expression, entertainment content, and personal counseling occupation categories.
The fourth socio-economic factor prompting esoterism’s rise in Russia is a bifurcated labor market in which undersupply for the blue-collar (predominantly male) workforce co-exists with an oversupply of university-educated female labor. Women represent a disproportionate share of graduates in humanities, education, and service professions, and these sectors have been severely affected by sanctions, budget cuts, and political pressures. Wage stagnation and declining job security have pushed many educated women to seek alternative income sources. Esoterism offers an attractive path into self-employment: it requires minimal capital, relies heavily on communication and interpretive skills familiar to humanities graduates, and can be conducted remotely with flexible hours. The gendered structure of the labor market thus directly shapes the supply of esoteric practitioners. Many of the most successful astrologers, tarot readers, and spiritual coaches in Russia are women who have transformed their academic or professional skills into spiritual entrepreneurship. The result is a feminized sector of the economy that flourishes precisely where conventional employment structures fail.
Together, professionalization, economic isolation, digital commercialization, and a gendered labor surplus make the current Russian esoteric boom qualitatively different from earlier revivals. They suggest that the phenomenon is intertwined with structural socio-economic trends rather than being merely a reaction to extraordinary political events.
Conclusion
Recent developments across Russia indicate that esoteric practices—tarot, astrology, numerology, clairvoyance, folk healing, and spell-casting—have moved decisively into the mainstream of social life and consumer behavior. A large body of survey data, market research, digital trends, and media reporting suggests that the country is experiencing not merely a revival of interest but a structural expansion of the occult economy into professional domains and regular consumption patterns.
I have argued that Russia’s growing engagement with esoteric practices is neither an eccentric cultural peculiarity nor a specific wartime response. Although it happens against the backdrop of long-established cultural legacies and profound political change, it is mostly driven by structural economic shifts, labor market pressures, and new digital commercial infrastructure. These changes may not change culture or accelerate widespread belief in the supernatural, but they make spiritual entrepreneurship a more viable as a source of income. The prominence of esoteric content online may also create an impression of a growing mystical movement, which in turn normalizes consumption and further feeds public interest.
Wage stagnation and declining job security have pushed many educated women to seek alternative income sources. Esoterism offers an attractive path into self-employment.
The war in Ukraine may have exacerbated these dynamics by amplifying uncertainty, weakening the availability of credible information, and accelerating the collapse of professional support structures. Consumers seek emotional stability in a disordered world, while creators—often educated, underemployed women—seek lucrative forms of self-employment. While the disruptions caused by the war may help explain some of the increase in demand for esoterism, what gives this trend its longevity are supply-side factors, increasing profitability and lowering entry barriers for mystic content creators.
One may see the growth of esoterism in Russia as an indication of social distress and institutional dysfunction. It signifies the extent to which Russians abandon rational-scientific systems of knowledge and accept alternative conceptions of truth. The fact that entrepreneurs use astrology to guide business decisions, that families spend as much on occult services as they do on food, and that college-educated women pose as witches reveals the depth of Russia’s socio-economic crisis.
Dinissa Duvanova received a BA in political science from the Kazakh National State University, an MA in political science from Utah State University, and an MA in Slavic and East European Studies and a PhD in political science from the Ohio State University. She held research and teaching positions at Princeton University and SUNY Buffalo and was a visiting fellow at the NYU Jordan Center and Alma University in Kazakhstan. Her research and teaching interests are in politics and the economy of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Her book Building Business in Post-Communist Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Collective Goods, Selective Incentives, and Predatory States won the Ed A. Hewett Book Prize for outstanding publication on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia, and/or Eastern Europe from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. She is also the author of Thieves, Opportunists, and Autocrats: Building Regulatory States in Russia and Kazakhstan, published in 2023.
Image made using “Марш российских артиллерийских подразделений в ходе вторжения на Украину 004,” by Unknown author licensed under CC Attribution 4.0 International; “Russian troops in northeastern Ukraine (February 2023),” by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Any and all other images used are in the public domain.
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