Peterburgian Vedism "to know" ("vedat")—a semantic root which is shared in Slavic and Sanskrit languages alike—, and it expresses the difference between sight or knowledge and dogmatic belief ("verit"), the latter being typical of non-Vedic doctrines. According to one of the contemporary leaders of the Peterburgian Vedic movement, Roman Perin, "Rodnovery" defines the practised religion, while "Vedism" defines the philosophy or knowledge at its core. Vedism therefore is not a religion but pure knowledge. According to Bezverkhy, dogmatic religions such as Christianity, but also Brahmanism (the successor of Vedism in India), were created in order to control the masses. Bezverkhy codified his
Peterburgian Vedism the term "Orthodoxy" as belief in the Rod (supreme God), affirming that it is a primordial religious knowledge that later gave rise to various regional traditions, including Indian Vedism; Russian Vedism, in his view, is that which has transmitted Vedic techings in the most genuine way. Viktor Bezverkhy borrowed the term "Vedism" (itself already used to refer to the historical Vedic religion) from Yuri Mirolyubov and his interpretation of the "Book of Veles". In Bezverkhy's thought, it defines the worldview of ancient Aryans, building upon empirical observation of the phenomena. He asserts that the word "Vedism" comes from the verb