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The call of Anastasia

The call of Anastasia

What is behind the Russian new age movement of Anastasia that has taken hold in Germany?

The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

April 24, 202526m 29s

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Show Notes

Members of the new age Anastasia movement espouse strong family values, farm small plots of land and try to educate their own children outside the public school system. Originating in Russia, the quasi-religious group has now spread to Germany, where there are more than a dozen Anastasia rural settlements. But are they more than just a harmless fringe group? Reporter Johannes Dell returns to his native Germany to discover what the group stands for. He speaks to a former Anastasia member and to a German journalist who spent two years tracking the group. A government intelligence officer tells him why three German states have designated the group as extremist.