with the first congregation in Ukraine gaining official recognition in Kiev in 1991. There had been schisms in the international organisation of Native Ukrainian National Faith. A number of senior followers broke with Sylenko during the 1980s, rejecting the idea that he should be the ultimate authority in the religion; they formed the Association of Sons and Daughters of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSID RUNVira) and secured legal control of the temple in Spring Glen. A second group, the Association of Sons and Daughters of Ukraine of the Native Ukrainian National Faith (OSIDU RUNVira), maintained links with Sylenko himself, whom it regards as a prophet. Despite the animosity that existed between these rival Ukrainian groups, there was some collaboration between them. In 2003, the First Forum of Rodnovers was held in Ukraine, resulting in two public proclamations: the first urged the country's government to protect what the Rodnovers regarded as sacred sites and objects, and the second called on the government not to go ahead with the proposed privatisation of agricultural land. That same year, a group called Ancestral Fire of the Native Orthodox Faith was established; in contrast to the anti-Russian slant taken by Sylenkoism, it embraced a pan-Slavic perspective. The social context of Rodnovery's growth in Russia differed from that in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Russian nationalists had welcomed the collapse of the Soviet system but were disappointed with the arrival of capitalism and the dramatic economic downturn that Russia faced in that decade. Many people became unemployed, and many turned to the past, nourishing the study of ethnic roots. In this context, the growth of Rodnovery can be seen as part of the nationalistic drive to regain national pride. Many leaders of early post-Soviet Rodnovery were intellectuals who were already Rodnovers in the late Soviet times; for instance, Grigory Yakutovsky (volkhv Vseslav Svyatozar), Alexey Dobrovolsky (volkhv Dobroslav) and Viktor Bezverkhy. Other leaders who emerged in this period were Aleksandr Asov, author of numerous books on Rodnover philosophy which have sold millions of copies, Aleksandr Belov, founder of the Slavic-Hill military type of Rodnovery integrating Rodnover philosophy and martial arts, and Viktor Kandyba, founder of Kandybaism. Since the 1990s, Russian Rodnovery has expanded and diversified. Rodnovers started to establish numerous organised groups by the mid of the decade; in 1994 the Moscow Slavic Community was the first Rodnover group to be registered by the