The forgotten Mari pagans of the Volga – The Washington Post

When Mari pagan priest Albert Rukovishnikov was a boy, he and his grandmother would sneak down under cover of the night to the sacred groves to make sacrifices. It was a dangerous time — the Soviet Union was known to persecute worshippers. “The police – fervent atheists, communists – would come. They kicked over our cauldrons and chased us away,” he told Open Democracy Russia.