AllatRa

The AllatRa International Public Movement (Ukrainian: "Міжнародний громадський рух «АллатРа»", Russian: "Международное общественное движение «АллатРа»") is a Kyiv-based group founded in 2011 that promotes a self-published book, "AllatRa". There seems to be a debate in some religious scholars in the Russosphere on whether AllatRa is a religious organization; some researchers classify ALLATRA as a new religious movement with characteristics of syncreticism, Apocalypticism, Pan-Slavism, New Thought and New Age. The organization responded that it is not New Age but claims to be based on "old but renewed true knowledge".
History.
In the 2000s, a series of books of spiritual and esoteric nature by a self-published author with the pseudonym Anastasia Novykh (Russian: Анастасия Новых) appeared in Ukraine in the Russian language. In 2011 in Kyiv, members of a public organization, who promoted a movement of readers of the books, founded the "Lagoda International Public Organization". In 2013, "AllatRa", the main book of Novykh, was self-published by the AllatRa publishing house.
The "AllatRa International Public Movement" was formally registered in July 2014 by the Lagoda organization, the AllatRa publishing house and active participants in the movement.
Structure of movement.
Based on official sources of the Allatra movement and a survey of its participants, the movement has a self-organized structure and has no leaders, functional hierarchy etc. Interestingly, many participants publish on their social networks profiles their new understanding and discoveries and are open more than before. Some outsiders see them as nitpickers, who want to develop themselves more and more every day. Therefore, Allatra fails to fulfill the characteristics of a sect.
Its operating model is based on the activity of individual participants. Members work on projects as follows:
The independence of the movement prohibits any kind of sponsorship from political organizations or government institutions. All sponsorship and charitable support are carried out by the people themselves, who are of goodwill for whom conscience and soul are not mere words but the base of their lives. All funds go to specific cases and help people, rather than to the structure and the promotion of the movement itself, as it is usually done in organizations of consumer society. Allatra is structured on a solely voluntary basis.
Main goals.
The movement's strategic objectives are encouraging people into active participation in the life of society, creating conditions for the development of people's creative potential and jointly engaging in activities beneficial to world society. In short, its main goal is to create conditions for people to be free from a system with a consumerist mindset.
Teachings.
Nikolas Roerich, a Russian Empire theosophist inspired by Tibetan mythology, introduced a mythical character, Rigden Djappo, to the Russosphere and attributed to him the title of King of Shambhala. He considered him as the savior who would appear at the end time. The Rigden Djappo character was invoked by Anastasia Novykh in the 2000s to co-narrate the book "ALLATRA", the main source of spiritual knowledge of the ALLATRA movement. Igor Mikhailovich Danilov, a chiropractor whose office was close to Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, is considered by the movenent to be its spiritual leader and the embodiment of Rigden Djappo. 
ALLATRA emphasizes a Pan-Slavic ideal that the unification of the world on a single spiritual basis would begin with the unification of the Slavic peoples and that the leadership of Moscow would play an important role in the future battle of good and evil. Therefore, the media have made opposite speculations on the involvement of the movement with Russian and Ukrainian secret services.
Notability.
Since ALLATRA's re-registration in Ukraine in 2014, Ukrainian sources, critical of the movement, reported extensive online and billboard advertisement campaigns in Ukrainian cities. These included forging agreements with Ukrainian mayors and city officials and were successful in gaining growing groups of followers. A 2016 article on "Релігія в Україні" (Ukrainian: Religion in Ukraine), a Ukrainian-language website that specializes in religions in Ukraine, described ALLATRA as a "pro-Russian sect of Putin's supporters", a view shared by , editor-in-chief of the Manipulátoři.cz. Meanwhile, in February 2021, Russia's REN-TV broadcast an investigative report declaring the organization a "dangerous cult." 
ALLATRA books, fliers, advertisements and conferences have been reported across the United States, Germany, Czechia, Turkey, and different parts of the world. Citations to ALLATRA works were found in academic publications of universities in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Poland and Iraq.
In 2017, the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate had "condemned the activities" of ALLATRA, alleging that its activities were facilitated by the Kiyv Pechersk Lavra run by the rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. Marina Tsvigun, a rival Ukrainian religious leader, as well as other rival Slavic Native Faith movements, also criticized ALLATRA's teachings.
In 2019, the Russian Federal Security Service reported that it had thwarted what it described as Anti-Semite terrorism plans in Taganrog, Russia by a group allegedly associated with ALLATRA and named "Union of the World Liberation Movement for People's Brotherhood" and "Union of the peoples of the sun and the peoples of the crescent". The group was described as an extremist Ukrainian nationalist group. The Chelyabinsk Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned these alleged activities. 
In 2019, Robby Wells of the United States' Democratic Party announced in a 2019 ALLATRA conference that he was running for president of the United States inspired by ALLATRA principles. He eventually did not meet the minimum criteria to be a major candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.