Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Feb 2022)
The Journal “Guide for Rural Pastors” in 1883–1917
Abstract
The article is devoted to the history of one of the most famous domestic pre-revolutionary periodicals for clergy — the journal “Guide for Rural Pastors” (RDSP), published at the Kiev Theological Seminary in 1860–1917. Although the journal was often referred to as the “press organ” of the parish clergy among the pastors of that time, and occupied a prominent place in church periodicals of the post-reform period, its history has still been studied and described just partially: only first decade’s history of the journal is reconstructed, and even that in general terms. The author of the article intends to primarily reconstruct the second half of the journal’s existence, using the materials of the Guide, as well as pre-revolutionary and modern scientific literature, both Russian and foreign, affecting various aspects of the church journalism history and the studied journal. Using descriptive, comparative-historical and biographical methods, the author in the process of research identifies 3 separate stages in the journal history, which basically coincide with the generally accepted periodization of pre-revolutionary church periodicals, and also determines the role of different editors in the activities of the journal and the influence of external factors on its development. The reconstruction of the overall picture of journal’s historical development during 1880s — 1910s can be considered as the result of this work. The author has demonstrated that the development of the journal at the specified time was determined both by general trends in the development of church journalism, and by the personalities of the editors, as a rule, the rectors of the Kiev Theological Seminary. The author concludes that in 1883–1892, during the editorship of Archimandrite Irenaeus (Orda) and Archimandrite Boris (Plotnikov), the journal experienced its highest flourishing as a pastoral periodical, including the investigation of pastoral issues. In the late 19th — early 20th centuries following the majority of Russian Orthodox periodicals, publicism “for the spite of the day” begins to prevail on the pages of the “Guide”, and the socio-political events and processes of those years are increasingly reflected in the journal activities. The main task of further studying the history of RDSP, according to the author, is to search for the preserved documentary materials related to the journal, mainly in the Ukrainian archives.
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