  Goltsov-vestnik-2026-3-ru.pdf |
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- Department of Church History, St. Petersburg University: milestones of secularisation
- Goltsov N.V. Department of Church History, St. Petersburg University: milestones of secularisation. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2026, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 7–13. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-3-7-13
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-3-7-13
- УДК: 2-9
- EDN: CKGEYY
- Publish date: 2026-09-01
- Annotation: The University charter of 1863 established departments of church history at the historical and philological faculties of the Imperial universities (since 1884 – Departments of history of church), separating this discipline from the general course of theology into an independent scientific field. The peculiarity of the new departments was that only persons with higher theological education were allowed to teach in them, which resulted in the dependence of universities on the theological school, whose representatives became the main candidates for the university department of church history. The article reconstructs in detail the circumstances of the replacement of this department at St. Petersburg University, and attempts to trace the main milestones of its secularisation, expressed in the corporation’s desire to ensure that the department is occupied by secular specialists with university education. At St. Petersburg University, this trend became apparent in the late 19th century with the election of Boris Melioranskiy, a graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology, to the chair. The next important milestone in this process was the admission to the lectureship in 1909 of Mikhail Prisyolkov, who had no theological education. This precedent opened up the possibility of leaving university graduates to prepare for a professorship in the Department of Church History, which was implemented in 1911. An additional illustration of the secularisation of the department is the social composition of the professorial degrees appointed to it in 1911–1917. For the most part, they did not come from the clergy, which fundamentally distinguished them from the specialists who had previously taught at the department.
- Keywords: Saint Petersburg University, Department of Church History, Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, secularization, Ivan Troitskiy, Boris Melioranskiy, Ivan Andreyev, Mikhail Prisyolkov
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