Volkhvy were heathen priests in pre-Christian Rus’. Volkhvy were believed to possess mystical powers, particularly the ability to predict the future. The first literary reference to a volkhv occurs in the Primary Chronicle under the year 912; there, the priest-soothsayer predicts Prince Oleh's death. With the adoption of Christianity the pagan priests came under persecution and sometimes tried to channel social discontent against the church.[1]
Volkhvy were part of the witch-hunts in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.