Article is devoted to an under-investigated aspect of power relations, namely – to the phenomenon of the so-called spiritual power. Low quality of modern researches of spirituality, spiritual power, the place of church in politics, etc., – is due to the fact that vast majority of them is carried out within the oppositions of secular to religious, of state to civil, of totalitarian to democratic. It’s an attempt to approach ontology of the spiritual power which is to call this binary discourse into question. D. Zilberman's work of «Orthodox Ethics and the Matter of Communism» is taken as the main source. The authors are guided by some theses of his concept with the purpose to plan contours of ontology of the spiritual power. Following Zilberman two types of Christian mysticism conditioned by distinction of a subject position in relation to religious (mystical) experience are considered and after that its social and political implications, that directly helped create the Byzantine-Russian civilization type and subsequently the Soviet socialism, are shown.

Using the phrase «spiritual power», authors mean not so much authority (and / or opportunity to influence authoritatively) of the clergy, the sacred, the power of church or a spiritual community, but first of all – a certain ideal paradigm having structural and ontological character so to speak. The latter aspect means that such paradigm is the cornerstone of mentality and social behavior, coming out far beyond the direct semantic contents. Since such paradigm functions as a basis, it, as a rule, isn't understood by subjects as guiding and «fundamental». Authors come to a conclusion that spiritual power in the specified meaning is: 1) a certain ideal paradigm and 2) multiple material practicians that support this paradigm and reproduce it. The ideal paradigm and the practicians constituting it considered in a mode of an event are the center of 3) formation of the subject and subject profile 4) type of the power relations in society. All the above mentioned is immanent to a certain 5) cultural tradition.

All five elements of the spiritual power are invariants by means of which a certain type of dominating social determination is maintained. Inside it there can be contradictory secular or religious forms, within each of them, nevertheless, structural similarity, typological parallelism can be traced. Their terms, ideology and social practice are different ways of expression, coordination procedure, reproduction of replacement and specific antagonisms however coincide.