Participation of students of Kazan theological academy in requiem for farmers in the village of Bezdna
Abstract
There was no other theological institution in Russian church where students led such a rampant life and where the rector played such an important role in their fate as in Kazan in 1861. At that time, students of theological schools were not so widely involved in socio-economical movements in Russia, which made it rather unexpected that students of Kazan Theological Academy were found in the centre of protest actions against legal authorities. In 1861, the students conducted a requiem for the perished farmers of the village of Bezdna at Krutinskoye (Arskoye) cemetery in Kazan. Thanks to the eff orts of their rector, archimandrite Ioann (Sokolov), they managed to excape grave consequences of their thoughtless act. The article aims to examine the course of the main events of this requiem and to give evaluations of actions of those persons who were involved in them. The sources for this study are archival documents of the Russian State Historical Archive, National Archive of Tatarstan and the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library. An important source is “Opinions and Reports” by St. Filaret of Moscow, who was one of the key fi gures in the investigation of the requiem for the farmers of Bezdna. The study also made use of sermons of the future bishop of Smolensk Ioann (Sokolov) as well as the work by P. V. Znamensky “History of Kazan Theological Academy in the fi rst (pre-reform) period (1842–1870)”. Based on the carried-out research, the author of the article answers the question about the true motives of the participation of students of Kazan Theological Academy in the protest actions.
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