Introducton. The article examines the social institution of pilgrimage as a phenomenon of the Russian cultural code in its evolution and formation of the tradition of social practice. Theoretical analysis. The author uses both the methodology of cultural research and the approaches of the sociology of knowledge, philosophical-anthropological and civilizational analysis for a holistic understanding of the wandering phenomenon. Within the framework of cultural and historical analysis, the perspective of two tradition formation periods is proposed - the time of the kalik–transients and the subsequent period of secularism and secularization. It is argued that the differentiation of these stages acts as an epiphenomenon of the change in anthropological paradigm and arises from the nominalistic desacralization of folk existence, which is led by progressive reforms and orientation towards a modernizing Western European society. Empirical analysis. The author uses the approach of classical philosophical anthropology together with the concepts of transcendence by M. Scheler and the eccentric position of H. Plesner as a determinant of human nature. At the same time, the internalistic orientation towards the transcendent in wandering tradition indicates the specificity of civilizational identity, within which it turns out to be possible, and which itself is opposed to utilitarian pragmatics, that forms the phenomenon of consumer society. Conclusion. It is concluded that Russian pilgrimage is both an element of the national cultural heritage and an instrument for understanding the more fundamental philosophical foundations of Russian civilization.