The Russian Judaizers and the Transylvanian Sabbatarians: An Attempt of Comparative Analysis

The paper provides the first attempt of a comparative study of the two forms of Judaizers phenomenon: the Russian Subbotnik movement and the Transylvanian Sabbatarianism. The study reveals a number of shared features in their origin, development, social makeup, religious ideas and practices as well as their relationships with the authorities. The genesis of the Transylvanian Szombatosok is directly correlated to the European Reformation, and Russian Judaizers are included in the context of the so called Protestantizing movement. Both movements were ultra-radical, spread mostly among peasants, and created similar survival strategies and identities; both experienced gradual de-Christianization and a growing impact of Judaic tradition. However, there were serious differences between the two groups: European intellectual and social elite played a key role in the genesis and early history of Transylvanian Sabbatarianism, which was, to an extent, a specific “construct” within the scope of the European religious thought of the 16th-17th centuries; in the Russian case, by contrast, the Judaizers emerged in the low social strata and had their roots in popular movements.