O. ANDREY: Nikolai, first of all, thank you very much for this wording. You said that it would be about my position, and did not immediately call it "the position of the Russian Orthodox Church."
Did I say that right?
O. ANDREY: Absolutely right.
You know, I said this, to be honest, without thinking, automatically. Because I'm used to the fact that just like I express my own opinion on the air, my guests tend to express their own opinion.
O. ANDREY: You know, just as for us all the Chinese look the same, in the same way for people who are not church people, everyone who is dressed in a black cassock also seems to have the same face, and the church is presented as a kind of barracks in which you can only voice some collective conciliar opinion. This is not entirely true, and I do not have the authority to represent the Moscow Patriarchate, its official position. I'm talking about some experience of my thoughts, life, impressions. And I am glad that most often it coincides with the position of the Patriarch, but for me this is a reason for joy, and not the fulfillment of a party assignment.
When I am asked the question: "How do you manage to work on Russian state television for so many years and at the same time claim that you are expressing your own opinion?" - I answer approximately the same as you just answered, that I always express my own opinion, but I am glad that so far in most fundamental cases my opinion has coincided with the opinion of the channel on which I work.
O. ANDREY: What honors this channel.
You do not have the authority to speak on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church. And how broad are your powers in terms of expressing your own position, if it diverges from the position of the Russian Orthodox Church?
Fr. ANDREI: The Patriarch expresses this in such a way that the norm of church discipline is as follows: if the Patriarch has clearly and clearly expressed his position on a certain issue, and the priest does not agree with it, the priest is not obliged to support this position, but at least let him observe the rules, as they say , let's say in secular language, corporate ethics and does not oppose. Let's say, what is the ethics in the government? The minister has the right to criticize the actions of the president, but first you put your resignation on the table, and then, please, criticize. Something similar here. That is, we are not obligated to thunderous applause, not obligated to constant "approval", but at least if a certain position is expressed, try to refrain from criticizing it.
But can you say, without criticizing, that the position of the Patriarch, the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church does not correspond to your position, or will this already be wrong?
O. ANDREY: There have been such cases. For example, I am disturbed by the trend that has appeared in recent years in our church personnel policy, when vicar bishops are put in their places. This is an old practice, centuries old in our church. But you understand, say, in the 19th century, a vicar bishop is an assistant bishop, he does not have power in the diocese, but he can perform some representative functions so that the ruling bishop is not distracted by any presentations, banquets, consecrations, decide what are some easy questions. So in the 19th century, after all, the Synod and the emperor determined, found some interesting teacher in a seminary, capital or provincial, he moved along career ladder, was hegumen, archimandrite, rector of the seminary, and if he showed himself well, he was recommended to become a vicar bishop, and if it was good there for several years, he became ruling in some area. What's going on today? Today, the candidate for vicar is not found by the central body, not by the emperor, not by the Synod, but by the local bishop among his own. And he chooses according to his size. That is the person with whom it will be convenient for me to work. And then, sooner or later, he will still become an independent bishop. And there are already several such cases, when people without a basic theological education, but simply good subdeacons in the provinces, became vicar bishops. I think it's basically for the future church life can create a problem. I spoke about this on the Orthodox radio "Radonezh", so I'm not afraid to say it now. But this is purely my personal position. It may well be that it’s just that I don’t know these people well, maybe the Patriarch really has much more information and the members of the Synod than I do.
So, Father Andrei, what is your position on teaching the basics of Orthodoxy in Russian secondary schools?
O. ANDREY: The foundations of Orthodoxy are the same as the Law of God. The scope within which this subject can be taught in a state secular school is clearly outlined in the law on freedom of conscience: at the request of parents, by way of voluntary will, optionally, outside the main curriculum, by teachers who are authorized by religious organizations, and the program of their course must be coordinated with local authorities. This is the Law of God, that is, precisely teaching Orthodoxy, as well as, say, teaching Islam or some other religion. And actually, there are no discussions here; in teaching this subject, our relations with local authorities and with the Federal Ministry of Education are quite clear.
There is a project that has been discussed in society for the past five years - the basics Orthodox culture. Not the foundations of Orthodoxy, but the foundations of Orthodox culture. This is not a word of Orthodoxy, this is a word about Orthodoxy. This is a cultural discipline. In general, the law does not say anything about her teaching. There is no federal law that would regulate the extent to which mathematics should be taught in which schools, the extent to which children should be introduced to the culture of the Renaissance, for example. This is the choice of each school. Now, if I were a director, I would decide this way: I have three historians at school, but one of them is just in love, he is a specialist in the Renaissance. And I would say: you know what, about what is so dear to you, talk more, I will find an opportunity and within the framework of the school component I will give you more hours to tell more about Bakhtin, Batkin, about Gorfunkel, about their works and about primary sources . There is a federal component of education, there is a regional and school component. 70 percent is the federal component, 15 percent of the hours are at the discretion of the region (local history, some local subjects), and 15 percent of academic hours at school - each school can decide for itself what kind of person it will have and its specialization. Here, within the framework of these hours, a maneuver is possible. If this is a conversation about the culture of Orthodoxy, this means the following. The culture of Orthodoxy - this, please, you can talk about the prayer "Ave Maria", and about the prayer "Our Father", and about the commandments of beatitudes. Children may be required to know these prayers by heart. But you can't ask them to pray.
A very thin line.
O. ANDREY: I'll tell you about myself. I learned the Creed for the first time while preparing for an exam in scientific atheism at Moscow State University. That is, they demanded from me his knowledge, as I was supposed to know the eightfold path of salvation in Buddhism, the form of confession and acceptance of Islam, and so on. But this does not mean that I should confess this, especially when studying at Moscow State University or teaching there. The line, of course, is very thin. Try to explain the inner logic of the myth. As, say, the internal logic of Dostoevsky's world is explained in literature lessons, but there is a completely different cosmos of Leo Tolstoy, and he has his own organic logic. These are different worlds, but a smart teacher should try to understand and, perhaps even for a few lessons, make children inhabitants of the world of Dostoevsky, inhabitants of the world of Tolstoy, inhabitants of the world of Tyutchev, Mayakovsky. These are different worlds, each of them is organic in its own way, tragic, but terribly interesting.
Pushkin would be nice to start with.
O. ANDREY: Pushkin, of course. So I think that those teachers who succeed in this manage to make children fall in love with Yesenin, and Mayakovsky, and Tyutchev, and Tsvetaeva ...
Which is real, because each of them is great, each of them is beautiful, interesting, bright, and there is no need to oppose one to the other.
O. ANDREY: Of course. I think that such a teacher, he will be able to find an intonation in which one could talk about Orthodoxy, and at the same time not dissolving children in the religious basis of Orthodoxy, explaining, and not proving, that in this symbol, in this icon, in this rite , in this dogma there is an internal logic. That Orthodoxy is not a bunch of some strange absurdities, but from the outside, of course, it seems like a fossil, a dinosaur, a heap of absurdities. Here you can explain that there is some kind of logic there, its own meanings are quite human. And then be able to resist and not answer the questions of children. Because children, of course, will ask questions: Maria Ivanovna, how can I pray? And now you need to be able to say: sorry, this is out of our course, if you want, stay at the break.
And here I have two questions for you. The first. We are talking about Orthodoxy. Do other world religions have the right to insist...?
O. ANDREY: Absolutely right. Moreover, we ourselves want it to be so. I assure you, at any door, a secular door, and even more so a state one, into which Orthodox priest, we want to be followed by representatives of the traditional religions of our Russia, our federation. I believe that it would be great to write a series of cassette-filled textbooks, that is, so that they have a certain universal part, religious studies, scientific, but then in every region of Russia or even in every school, because there may be a Tatar school in Moscow and for sure there is, based on the characteristics of this class, the teacher, school, parents choose the confessional component. The first, say, two-thirds of the textbook is common for the whole country, for the whole school, it is a textbook on ethics, for example, or cultural studies, but then the content depends on what is closer to this audience, which is now here in front of me, for these kids , in the language of their culture, so that they are not foreigners in their homeland. Small homeland, but also a big homeland.
That is, there is no desire on your part to "monopolize" the child's head.
O. ANDREY: No way. Moreover, they usually object: what if Muslims in their republics introduce the study of the foundations of Islamic culture? So I'll be the first. If I lived in Kazan and I would know that Shaimiev introduced such lessons - the basics of Islamic culture - in the schools of Kazan, I would definitely command my children: you not only have to go - you must be excellent students. If you want to live here in Kazan, if you don't want to leave here, you must know with what eyes your neighbors and your friends see the world.
What is the essence of your disagreement with the Ministry of Education on the issue of teaching the basics of Orthodox culture in Russian secondary schools?
O. ANDREY: I accuse the federal Ministry of Education of laziness. They want to take the easy way out: just keep this kind of project out of the school. We have the same understanding of complexity. But only I think that the presence of a problem is not a reason for closing the problem field, but for a more attentive attitude towards it. The Ministry of Education should not resist, not block the dam, which is likely to be swept away anyway, because most parents want to have such a subject, but it is necessary to create a system of control over textbooks in this subject, over the course of teaching, over the training of teachers.
What are our differences? The Ministry of Education has quite legitimate and real, alas, fears that under the guise of cultural studies, religious preaching will actually be quite direct. And a fair number of textbooks on the basics of Orthodox culture, which I have seen, are in fact not even disguised textbooks of the Law of God. That is, there are direct appeals to children: what would you do in the place of such and such a saint? how did you celebrate Christmas? what will you do before Easter?.. Of course, this is unacceptable on a cultural subject. So the ministry, if it recognizes the existence of this subject, will have the right to license both teachers and textbooks and conduct field checks. It seems to me that this is the way to go - to educate teachers, and not just cut off this subject.
POSITIVE ASPECTS OF ORTHODOX EDUCATION IN SCHOOL
The moral education of schoolchildren in modern society is becoming problematic, examples of the immorality of adolescents are increasingly becoming the subject of discussion, with terrifying constancy getting into the media. Orthodox upbringing of children helps to solve many issues that parents and teachers face. Some positive aspects of the pedagogical experience of the staff of the private "School of Retro", which has been educating students in Orthodox traditions for more than 25 years, confirm the effectiveness of this method.
First of all, spiritual and moral education in an Orthodox school is based on the gospel law of love, from which follows general rule treatment of neighbors: "do not do to another what you do not wish for yourself." When disagreements and disputes arise, the reminder of this rule often becomes a convincing argument for ending the conflict. Without annoying moralizing, everything becomes understandable, clear, and this is immediately evident from the reaction of children and their further behavior.
Man is endowed with reason, feelings and free will. He himself determines how he should act in various life situations, but he himself will have to be responsible for his actions. Pupils of the school "Retro" understand that good feelings and desires alone are not enough, good deeds must be done, therefore they participate in many charity events held by the school and other public organizations.
Knowledge of the commandments of the Law of God undoubtedly plays a positive role in children's perception of the reality around them. For example, the discussion of the Orthodox component of the fifth commandment (“honour thy father and thy mother”) in the classroom not only unites the family, teaching them to respect elders, but also brings up children in the spirit of patriotism. Tracing the connection of times, reflecting on the losses and achievements, defeats and victories of previous generations, schoolchildren look into the past of their family, turning to the elders, learn how their family experienced the historical difficulties that befell the entire nation. Realizing the connection of their family with the history of the country, schoolchildren feel a sense of unity, perceive themselves as part of the people, which is reinforced by stories not only about military exploits, but also about the spiritual exploits of the saints who shone in the Russian land. Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga believed that "the people are a unity, sealed by the humble deeds of Russian saints and the swearing blood of Russian warriors."
Another positive aspect of the Orthodox education of students is familiarization with universal cultural values, when works of painting, sculpture, literature on biblical subjects become accessible, understandable and interesting for schoolchildren, enriching and developing their inner world.
Report of Bishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Feofan
Orthodoxy is the living past, present and future of the Russian people. It is represented in every cell of life, in the images of the best sons of our people: spiritual and statesmen, thinkers and creators, warriors and ordinary workers.
Orthodoxy is the living history and living truth of the Russian people, it is culture and modern life, philosophy and worldview, ethics and aesthetics, upbringing and education. Therefore, to tear a Russian person away from Orthodoxy means to tear him away from own history, its roots and soil, i.e. just kill him. Thus, the return to Orthodoxy is the main condition for the salvation of the Russian people. To do this, we must provide every opportunity for every person to convert to the faith, and above all, children. It is necessary that the connection between conviction and life be formed from infancy, so that the child learns to motivate his behavior with the Christian faith, which gives spiritual strength. Therefore, the duty of the Church is to make doctrinal truths alive in the eyes of people.
This task can be carried out through public policy, strengthening of the traditional family and education.
It is necessary to return Orthodoxy, if not as a state, then at least as a social ideology. Understanding it as a fundamental idea that will be understood and accepted by the majority of society. With its help, it will be possible to oust from the minds of Russians common ideologemes-myths: godless materialism, soulless consumerism with indifferent pluralism, and spiritually dangerous cosmism with pantheism.
Today, calls for a search for a common idea, a deep reference point, a universally valid ideal are heard more and more insistently. Everyone now understands that it is impossible to reorganize the life of the people, and even more so the education and upbringing of young people, without a spiritual core, without an idea that unites and inspires people. Some people think that such a national idea can be invented and instilled in the people. But the history of the 20th century has convincingly shown us that the invented national ideas most often turn out to be erroneous, false, and even taking possession of the people on a short time, always lead him to disaster.
Such an idea should ripen in the depths of the people's consciousness, reflect the deepest aspirations of millions. If its prerequisites are not formed in the bowels of society, then no efforts state structures, theorists and ideologists will not give a reliable result.
The roots of the modern civilizational collapse lie in the changed picture of the world that has developed in the era of modern times. With this understanding, God remains both in philosophy and pedagogy, but in a different capacity. He, in fact, is taken out of the brackets of this world, in which a person becomes the owner, now endowed with creative power.
We must fight the idea of anthropocentrism in order to establish the principle of theocentrism in our lives, for the center of our being is not a man of dust, but the eternal God.
It is quite obvious that the most important task on this path is the education and upbringing of children and youth, those who should receive centuries-old values from us folk life.
If we do not cope with this problem, then no economic and political programs will change anything for the better. They, just as before, will be perverted and strangled by immorality, selfish desire for profit by any means.
Orthodoxy understands true freedom as freedom from sin. This implies the voluntary self-restraint of a person, the bringing of a certain sacrifice, the imposition of certain spiritual and moral bonds on oneself in the name of salvation. The liberal standard, on the other hand, asserts the exact opposite: the removal from one's being of everything that limits, restricts, does not allow, because the idea of freedom is for him an idol above any belief in God. The direction that they are now trying to give to the system of secular education from kindergarten to high school, focuses on the formation and approval of precisely this liberal standard of human freedom.
That is why we need to clearly define the goal of education, identifying the fundamental reason that gives rise to all the consequences that are detrimental to our life and our salvation, testifying to the madness of the existence of a person outside of faith as a norm. human being, educate a person in our own, Orthodox standards. Religious education, rooted in the Orthodox Tradition, should be oriented towards the formation of these standards, which include the worldview attitudes of the individual.
Children can be taught in different ways. Unfortunately, quite often, all kinds of prohibitions become the most common method - for this or that clothes, these or those hobbies, interests. Of course, restrictive, protective methods should be present along with others in the process of personality formation. But experience shows that this path is the least productive and the most fraught with the response of childhood and adolescent negativism. Thoughtless prohibitions naturally provoke a stubborn desire to act contrary. Equally erroneous is the assertion in the mind of a person of a positive ideal by hammering in common truths, just as it was done in Soviet times. But life always rebels against the scheme and always wins.
The problem is that it is impossible in principle to program people's behavior through ready-made and externally imposed worldview clichés. A person simultaneously exists in diverse everyday situations that do not fit into any schemes, which, because of this, turn out to be useless for him. The way out of this situation lies in what we invest in the concept of a standard. For if a person is brought up in a certain system of values, then at the moment of any, and even more so, a fateful choice, by virtue of the upbringing received, he will be able to make the right decision.
Thus, the task of including elements of religious education in secular education is seen in the formation of a life standard, a certain system of values that predetermine a person's behavior in various circumstances and make the Christian motivation of actions and decisions vital for him. Through religious education to the Orthodox way of life - this should be the strategy of modern Orthodox pedagogy.
Without faith in God there is no national life. Faith is the soul of the people.
But is there a place for it in the current legislation?
The Law on Education states that education in our country must have a “secular character”, that “At the request of parents or persons replacing them, with the consent of children studying in state and municipal educational institutions, the administration of these institutions, in agreement with the relevant authorities local government provides a religious organization with the opportunity to teach religion to children outside the educational program: (Article 5, paragraph 4). Our entire educational system, subject to the inertia of previous years, perceives this law as an affirmation of atheistic education in public schools.
"Secular" does not mean atheistic, and therefore not clerical. All confessional comprehensive schools before the revolution in Russia, and now abroad, as well as modern Orthodox gymnasiums, they gave and give a completely secular education.
The interpretation of the "secular nature" of education as atheistic is based not on the letter and not on the essence of the law, but on a complete misunderstanding that another completely legitimate approach to this problem is possible. It is necessary to use the regional 20% component presented at the discretion of the local authorities for the teaching of religiously oriented subjects, to teach the main humanities subjects in such a way that they give an objectively scientific, and not a tendentiously atheistic description of the place and significance of religion in history and culture.
Atheism, not even militantly aggressive, is not some kind of objectively supra-religious progressive knowledge. It is just one of the worldviews that expresses the views of not the majority of the Earth's population, and does not have any scientific justification.
In a country where more than half of the population declares themselves to be believers, there are no reasonable grounds for atheism to occupy a dominant position in education and upbringing.
Atheism, denying the ontological existence of good and evil, is not able to logically and consistently substantiate the necessity and obligatory nature of morality.
Today Orthodoxy is the main spiritual and moral support of a very large part of the Russian population of our country. Therefore, it would be fair to include religiously oriented disciplines in the grid compulsory subjects on the basis of equal alternatives. Parents who want to raise their children as atheists can choose, for example, "Fundamentals of Morality" instead of "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture."
The system of Orthodox upbringing and education in Russia is being formed today in accordance with the following principles and directions.
First of all, the development of spiritual and moral potential began humanitarian knowledge, with the inclusion of religious components in its content. A system of spiritual and moral education is being created, based on both humanistic and religious traditions.
Today we can already say that it is possible to receive religious education in accordance with the beliefs and at the request of children and parents, as an additional, optional one. Software and scientific and methodological support for the teaching of spiritual and moral disciplines is being created. In this regard, the activities of educational institutions and religious organizations are being coordinated on issues of mutual interest.
A big step forward is the inclusion of Theology in the number of educational areas allowed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in state universities.
Raising the authority of Christian science, and, consequently, of Christian education and upbringing, we can work on the return of our people to a moral life, the norms of Christian morality. In addition, these measures will help eliminate the flagrant facts of anti-state educational activities of sectarianism, which is becoming a real state disaster.
For this, it is necessary to combine all forces, to include in cooperation the most authoritative educational and scientific structures- Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Education, Moscow State University, Ministry of Education and Science, educational institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate, to carry out fruitful work, including to promote:
Exchange of information and transfer of experience in educational activities;
Mutual understanding in an objective way full interpretation legislative acts;
Conducting an analysis of existing experience and considering the issue of opening an educational direction and specialty Orthodox theology.
Preparation and harmonization of standards in Theology and other humanitarian disciplines, in their composition corresponding to traditional higher theological education, consistent with existing regulations(the presence of compulsory disciplines, the total number of hours and the timing of the subjects) organization and
the functioning of the Educational and Methodological Association for
polyconfessional direction and specialty Theology;
The study and implementation of traditional and modern experience of educational activities that imply religious
worldview and aimed at receiving a secular education;
Cooperation on a bilateral basis in the issues of publishing educational and educational literature, developing and implementing curricula and other materials, holding various events in the field of
education and expertise in relation to published books;
Involvement in the writing of programs and textbooks in the main humanitarian subjects of professional specialists from culture-forming faiths who are able to give an objective scientific description of the place and significance of religion in history and culture.
There are already significant shifts in the minds of the people, government officials, employees of ministries and departments.
In the Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Diocese, active work is being carried out in the field of Orthodox education and the spiritual and moral education of children and youth. This work includes the improvement of the average and higher education(introduction of the subject "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture"), and a system of measures addressed to the family, children preschool age; the introduction of spiritual and moral content in the field of additional education, culture, health care, social protection, work public associations with teenagers and youth, the activities of law enforcement agencies.
In the Diocese, measures are being taken to improve the qualifications of teachers, including not only the holding of scientific and practical educational conferences, seminars, round tables, but also the organization of teacher training courses on the "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture".
After the conclusion of the Cooperation Agreement between the Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Diocese and the Ministry of Education of the Stavropol Territory dated May 16, 2002, it became possible in 150 educational institutions of the Diocese to introduce the subject "Fundamentals
Orthodox culture” (mostly optional). On the basis of this Agreement, more than 30 Cooperation Agreements have already been concluded and programs of joint actions of executive authorities, bodies of the Department of Education and commissions for religious education and catechesis in all deaneries of the Diocese have been developed.
But there are spiritual problems that are still impossible to cope with.
Evil influence environment infiltrates our schools and is often perceived as a coveted forbidden fruit;
We have a huge shortage of teachers. Our external successes are far ahead of internal - spiritual ones. Good, often religious people come to teach, but they themselves are neophytes: they do not have proper education, taste, do not understand their duties, do not know how to educate
children in the spiritual, church life, tk. they themselves do not know what the spiritual life is. They confuse spiritual freedom with democracy, spiritual leadership with zombies, and so on.
How to kindle the soul of a child with faith, so that it becomes not some kind of everyday condition, but so that the heart of the child catches fire? How to do it? The heart lights up from the heart like a candle from a candle. Usually this happens due to a meeting with some wonderful believer, an ascetic of faith. The beauty of achievement can captivate the soul of a child, it captivates him. If our teachers are such ascetics, then the children will be believers. If our teachers are ordinary Orthodox inhabitants, then our children will leave the Church, as happened, before the revolution. At that time, the Law of God was taught everywhere, but this did not prevent a huge part of our people from renouncing the faith as soon as the revolution took place.
Religious disciplines cannot be taught in school in the same way as other subjects, it must be remembered that the main objective- it is to instill in the soul of a child the desire to be an ascetic of faith, it is necessary to instill in him love for God, love for the Church.
At the same time, it must be well remembered that education is not just edification. Education is perennial Cohabitation with kids.
Times are changing and secular education, experiencing the deepest crisis, is turning to spiritual, traditional foundations.
The use of faith necessary for the revival and prosperity of Russia is well known. It consists of a corpus of those primordial values of morality and civil life, which are the same for both the gospel and the constitution of the modern state.
And the first task of the modern period is to establish these moral and civic values in an unadulterated form in our schools. Moreover, to put them at the center of education, since the future of the Fatherland primarily depends on the spiritual and moral potential of young people, on their kindness, honesty, justice and striving for disinterested care for their neighbors and selfless love for their Motherland.
In the last period, moral imperatives more and more tangibly triumph over momentary needs, they increasingly become
guide to action by the government and the Ministry of Education and Science.
Reforms and innovations will be carried out on the basis of the currently being developed National Doctrine of Education and the Federal Program for its Development.
As a result, the leading role of spiritual and moral values in the development of education will be restored, education will be returned to schools, which means that the humanistic purpose of educational institutions will be strengthened from the very beginning.
At the suggestion of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, a secular-religious commission on education was created, which is called upon to free state educational standards, curricula, textbooks and teaching aids from manifestations of militant atheism.
Most of the tasks that determine the development of schools, universities and other educational institutions can be solved only with the active participation of the general public, representatives of religious and confessional, state-political and business circles.
Without public organization of the life of children, adolescents and young people outside of schools and other educational institutions, it is impossible to provide a full-fledged upbringing of the younger generation. It is very important for the Orthodox Church to find an opportunity to participate more actively in her own forms in the activities public organizations for children and youth.
Summing up all of the above, it should be noted that a certain part of our society is already on the path of reviving Russian national traditions and culture. Against the background of this process, the crystallization of the basic principles of Orthodox education takes place. This is, first of all, Christocentrism, the personal nature of education through the unity of the family, parish and school, teaching about love, churching, asceticism, moral and rational anticipation moral education rational-informative, instilling the skills of moral perception of cultural values, fostering a sense of universal humanity and patriotism, a deeply moral attitude towards the world around. On this basis, the national Russian culture was formed, the self-consciousness of our people, there is hope that the spiritual revival of Russia will begin with the establishment and dissemination of Orthodox education.
Fifteen years ago, all the educational structures of the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter - the ROC) were represented by three theological schools - the Moscow and Leningrad academies and seminaries and the Odessa seminary. In a vast country, there was no other way to receive a systematic Orthodox religious education, except for studying in these very sparsely populated institutions. All other forms of it were banned. Private initiatives were suppressed by the authorities - to teach religious rites(let alone theology) you couldn't even have your own children.
At present, the number of educational institutions created by various divisions of the ROC cannot be counted. Their status and the form of education they give are very diverse. ROC and government bodies moved from confrontation to cooperation - including in the educational sphere. All this forces us to analyze educational activities ROC.
Sunday Schools
The most common type of church educational institutions and the basis for the entire Orthodox educational system are Sunday schools. These schools should reveal to children and teenagers the fundamentals of the faith, help them learn the Bible, give ideas about the main church holidays and saints. This work can be called catechism, or doctrinal. In modern Russian practice the programs of such schools are designed, as a rule, for a year or two of study (or three years for very young children). Basically, children of parishioners study in these schools, about a quarter of total number students are adults. Children learn in a school-like way, sitting at their desks and listening to the teachings of a mentor. In adult groups, training is built more on the principle of a "club" - with tea parties and long conversations.
The Sunday school system is currently in decline. Most of them were created by priests or Orthodox enthusiasts in the first half of the 1990s, during the "religious boom". However, after only two or three years, the religious fervor dried up, and the number of children and adults in Sunday schools dropped sharply. Another reason for the decline in the number of students was the lack of qualified teaching staff. Although, since 1992, various dioceses have tried to establish a system for their preparation, for the most part these projects have failed. big problem It turned out to find people who have the strength, time and interest to teach for a meager salary or even for free. Not all Orthodox enthusiasts or priests burdened with a large number of cases could long time do the hard work of teaching. In 1997, at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the church authorities, noticing this trend, ordered the local bishops to streamline the catechism work. Departments of religious education were created in practically all dioceses, and many provincial bishops issued orders for the mandatory opening of Sunday schools in all parishes.
According to the official data of the Russian Orthodox Church for 2000, in 53 dioceses that submitted reports (and there are more than 70 in total), the total number of Sunday schools exceeded 2600, more than 80 thousand children and about 30 thousand adults studied in them. However, the secretaries of the diocesan administrations submitting these reports to Moscow admit in personal communication that, as a rule, they set the number of Sunday schools “from the ceiling”, since they do not have the opportunity and desire to check how many of them really work.
Now only about one parish out of six has a really functioning Sunday school. As a rule, they are created at large city churches. The number of students in such a school rarely exceeds thirty people.
The future of Sunday schools looks rather bleak. According to our observations, in an average diocese (100-120 parishes) there are, as a rule, no more than five or seven active priests around whom "life is in full swing" and there are various Orthodox initiatives. Sunday school is a natural part of such a parish. In other cases, if there is a school, it is mainly “for the sake of it”. According to the head of the Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop John (Popov), Sunday schools have generally “outlived their time” and in the future they will need to be transformed into Orthodox educational centers (in secular terms, “interest clubs”), designed not so much for children, how many for adults. It is difficult to say how fair such a sentence is. Other Christian denominations successfully use the form of Sunday schools to prepare a new generation of parishioners. The author does not have the data for Russia necessary for comparison, but in Ukraine the indicators are as follows: in terms of the number of Sunday schools to the number of parishes, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) is inferior to the Greek Catholics by a quarter, and the Roman Catholics, Baptists and Adventists - by half .
Shelters
In the last three or four years, orphanages, which are being created at large monasteries and some churches, have become very popular. Currently in Russia (according to the official data of the dioceses) there are more than ten of them, about the same number operate unofficially. As a rule, these are small establishments designed for 10-30 people. It is believed that homeless children gather in them, who are fed and taught there. About the first such shelter (it is combined with a nursing home) in the village. Saraktash of the Orenburg region was written a lot, he enjoys well-deserved fame in the Church. However, his copies seem less successful.
These establishments have an uncertain legal status. It is not homeless children who often end up there, but children from poor believing families, which causes frequent conflicts with relatives: not all parents agree with the intentions of the monks to “educate a young shift”, many do not want their children to be used in agricultural or repair and restoration work. Often the clergy are also critical of monastic shelters, at least in their current state. One of the leaders of the Kazan diocese, for example, indignantly told the author about a major local monastery, “who does not raise children, but makes little bandits out of them. The monks take advantage of the boys, they don’t teach them anything, but from time to time they take them to Disneyland Paris.” At the same time, the idea of establishing shelters is attractive to sponsors, for whom the leaders of the monasteries paint idyllic pictures. The last and largest of these institutions was the shelter opened in October 2000 for 200 people at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, created for some reason at the expense of the Ministry of Railways.
Theological schools and pastoral courses
The rapid growth in the number of parishes in the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s (up to 40% per year) revealed an acute shortage of people with church specialties. There was a chronic lack of educated clergy - even before perestroika, only a third of them had a seminary education. The situation was even worse with literate psalm-readers, choir directors, and Sunday school teachers. At the same time, thousands of Orthodox enthusiasts sought to help the church. As a result, many dioceses began to open one- and two-year theological schools and various courses - pastoral, psalm-reader, regent or regent-icon-painting. They were taught, as a rule, by priests of the diocese who had an academic education (often the bishop himself), as well as invited teachers from local universities. One of the main considerations when creating theological schools was that preparing a priest on the spot (albeit in an accelerated way) is much cheaper than sending him hundreds of kilometers to a seminary and paying for his education there.
In the mid-1990s, with the strengthening of the educational and material base of theological schools and courses, some of them began to turn into seminaries. Of the 25 seminaries that opened after 1988, 16 were converted from religious schools. However, 35 schools continue to exist even now. Some of them conduct training under a three- and even four-year program, which implies their further transformation into a seminary. In addition, there are at least two dozen courses and schools that are intended for the acquisition of church specialties by the laity. In general, these courses cope with their mission - to close a gap in the system of training church employees, but the level of education they offer is still quite low, which does not suit either the diocesan leadership or serious applicants.
Seminaries
Seminaries are the main link in the system of Orthodox education. All other elements of its system may be absent, but it cannot do without seminaries, where future priests receive their basic education. At the beginning of 1988, in the USSR, for more than eight thousand parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, there were only three very small seminaries. Now there are 28 of them. In most of them, the course of study takes four years, although since 1999 a reform has been launched with the aim of switching to a five-year term of study. The process of studying in seminaries is not unified. In addition to the standard curriculum approved by the Study Committee, most seminaries teach something of their own. The inner spirit of the seminaries is quite different. Even in Soviet times, there was a saying: "In Odessa they work, in Moscow they pray, and in Leningrad they study." At present, the picture is much more varied: there are frankly liberal seminaries (Kostroma, St. Petersburg), strongholds of fundamentalists (Ekaterinburg, Sretenskaya), a special seminary for missionaries (Belgorodskaya). In Ukraine, at a distance of a hundred kilometers, there are educational institutions so different in ideology, such as the Lutsk Seminary, imbued with the spirit of Ukrainian statehood and educating white (married) rural clergy in it, and Pochaevskaya, cultivating a Russified version of monasticism.
Seminary students are selected on a competitive basis. Although the competition is now lower than in the early 1990s, it ranges from two and a half people per seat at the St. Petersburg Seminary to four per seat at the Lutsk Seminary. True, the preservation of the competition is largely due to the fact that seminaries, suffering from chronic absence funds, slowly reduce the number of students. In addition, the growth rate of parishes fell sharply compared to the previous five years, and by the end of the 1990s, the shortage of personnel in the dioceses had been largely eliminated. This, of course, does not mean that all the clergy received their due vocational training(30-40% of priests do not have it), but only a few of the bishops are able to force a priest already serving and burdened with a family to go to school. At the same time, not all seminary graduates become priests. A significant part of them (20-30%) choose a different path in life - by their own will or by the decision of the diocesan authorities, who refused to ordain a graduate. Only a small part of them will work in diocesan and parish structures - the rest, it turns out, simply received an education at the expense of the church. Many of them go to seminary to avoid military service. Seminary leaders do not yet have the opportunity to deal with this phenomenon. There are few applicants with military experience. In addition, as the rector of one of the provincial seminaries explained to the author, it is preferable to take young people right after school - "until they have time to learn all the sins in the army at once."
Discipline in seminaries is a serious issue. Oddly enough, but the "bursat" traditions were largely transferred to our time. According to the most conservative estimates, more than 10% of students are expelled for various misconduct. The reason for this is the rigid, almost barrack-like discipline reigning in seminaries. On the other hand, perhaps it is necessary, since the seminaries are mostly attended by "simple guys" from working and peasant families (children of the clergy among them 10-15%, intellectuals - no more than 20%). They bring rather wild morals to the church educational institution, with which teachers who prepare future priests have to vigorously fight. Thus, the teaching staff of the seminary constantly balances between two dangers - "loosening the reins" and "going too far", and students find themselves in a strong dependence on the mood and disposition of their teachers. In the event of a conflict, the diocesan authorities, as a rule, take the side of the leadership of the seminary. For example, in the Stavropol Seminary in 1992–94, students starved meekly and froze for months in an unheated room until the rector was replaced, and in St. Petersburg, seminarians who protested in 1999–2000 against the ordination of an informer and a money grabber to the priesthood were expelled. At the same time, some of the teachers who supported them were also fired.
academies
The highest level of church education is the academy. In Soviet times, there were two academies - in Moscow and Leningrad, now there are five of them - in Kyiv, Chisinau and Minsk. The main task of the academy is to train teaching staff for seminaries and religious schools. In addition, teachers and graduate students of the academy are engaged in church-scientific and theological activities. Now the training at the academy is four years, but in the coming years, as a result of the reform of church education, it should become three years.
The academy enrolls graduates of seminaries or secular universities, inclined to teaching and scientific activity or intending to hold administrative positions in the Church in the future. An academic diploma gives its holder a huge advantage over other priests in any diocese. In fact, the elite of the church is grown in the academies. Four-fifths of the representatives of the episcopate have academic diplomas, and those of them who did not have time to do this before consecration strive to receive them for reasons of prestige at the correspondence department (although sometimes this is delayed for many years). In general, the number of students in academies is very small and depends on the position of the leaders of the Church. In two Russian Academies, no more than 200 people study in total, and in the Kyiv Academy of the UOC-MP (comparable to the Russian one in terms of the number of parishes) - 360. In the Minsk Academy of the Belarusian Exarchate - 21 people, and in the Chisinau Academy of the Orthodox Church in Moldova (and in Belarus , and in Moldova a little over a thousand parishes) - 137.
All graduates of the academy receive a diploma. Those who defend their dissertations also receive a Ph.D. in theology. And only a few continue their education in a two-year postgraduate course at the academy.
Orthodox St. Tikhon Theological Institute
An educational institution of a new type is the St. Tikhon Theological Institute in Moscow, which since 1996 has had the status of a church-wide educational institution. It was created in 1991 by a group of priests from the Church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy to train secular people in the specialties necessary for the church. Gradually, one of the many initiatives of the Orthodox community developed into the largest church educational institution (about 3 thousand students, 13 branches in various cities of Russia). Since November 1998 STBI has state accreditation and issues diplomas state standard, and full-time students are eligible for deferment from the army. Six faculties were opened: theological-pastoral, missionary-catechetical, historical-philological, pedagogical, church singing, church arts. The term of study is 5 years. For the past three years, STBI teachers have been part of the diocesan administration of Moscow, and in general, STBI has been a trendsetter in Orthodox education for secular people.
In the provinces (Armavir, Volgograd, Novosibirsk) in 1992-1995, universities similar to the STBI were created. They have several faculties, a four-year term of study and have up to 500 students.
Church authorities governing education
In the ROC, two all-church bodies deal with the problems of education. The oldest of these is the Holy Synod Training Committee (chaired by Archbishop Evgeny of Vereya (Reshetnikov)), which previously supervised the training of future priests in academies, seminaries and religious schools, and now coordinates it. But it should be noted that the diocesan bishops, who finance their seminaries from their own funds, are not very fond of interference from Moscow. In fact, the same two theological schools (Moscow and St. Petersburg) are now subordinate to the committee in Russia, as in Soviet times, as well as the St. Tikhon Institute. Part of their funding goes through the Study Committee and therefore they are more likely to heed its advice. The main occupation of the committee in the second half of the 1990s was the reform of seminary education, which consisted in the transition to a five-year term of study. Despite the repeated meetings that the committee held with the rectors of the seminaries, things are still going poorly. It is difficult for seminaries to increase their budget another 20% to improve the quality of education.
The second general church body is the Department for Religious Education and Catechization (Chairman - Hegumen John (Ekonomtsev)), which coordinates the activities of the dioceses to create a system of Orthodox religious education for children and their parents, organizes the training of catechists capable of providing primary religious education, and oversees the preparation process in Orthodox universities (except STBI). It operates the Information and Coordination Center for Orthodox Education in Russia, which collects statistical data and information on the dioceses and publishes the newsletter "Orthodox Education in Russia", and the Russian Orthodox University of St. Apostle John the Theologian, opened in December 1992, with eight faculties, 500 students and a state educational license. However, the main occupation of the department was the holding of the annual Educational Christmas Readings in Moscow, which gathers the entire church educational "beau monde" and state officials and teachers who are set up to cooperate with the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2001, about 6,500 people representing 87 dioceses took part in the readings.
In general, the system of church education is in the same uncertain position as the entire infrastructure of the ROC. Taking advantage of the freedom gained in the last decade, the ROC has opened dozens of educational institutions (not counting thousands of Sunday schools), without thinking about how they will exist. As a result, they were left without proper funding, qualified teaching staff, training and methodological literature. It is now obvious that some of the Orthodox educational institutions will be forced to close in the near future.
Another problem is even more significant: what is taught in the educational institutions of the ROC? Many authoritative critics of the church educational system, including those from the Russian Orthodox Church itself, argue that existing system reproduces "magism" and "demand fulfillment". That is, instead of instilling a theological understanding of the foundations of the dogma and developing the skills of missionary and catechetical work, future priests are trained to beautifully perform rituals. Many (if not most) bishops and priests of the Russian Orthodox Church agree with such criticism of the educational system, but the adoption and implementation of decisions in this area is clearly a matter of the distant future.
Church-state institutions
The main and most widespread form of church-state educational institutions is designed for children of preschool age and schoolchildren. These are Orthodox kindergartens (there are about a dozen of them in Russia) and various Orthodox schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, of which there are currently about a hundred in Russia, according to official figures. Two dozen of them are in Moscow.
Their history goes back to the first half of the 1980s when in circles Orthodox intelligentsia a network of informal home schools was formed, where converted parents tried to treat their offspring from the consequences of Soviet atheistic education. With perestroika, some of these home schools came out of the underground and after the adoption of the Russian law “On Education” in 1992, along with other non-state educational institutions, they received a license to teach (for example, the Moscow Yasenevo and Kovcheg gymnasiums, the Novosibirsk Sergius of Radonezh). In the provinces, some schools of this kind arose on the initiative of Orthodox enthusiasts, as a rule, parishioners of one church. In 1994, most of these projects received (if they had not previously) support at the level of local church authorities - by decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, each diocese was ordered to have an exemplary gymnasium. At present, there are fifty-five Orthodox gymnasiums.
Funding for such educational institutions, as the Orthodox side usually says, is carried out "on a parity basis." That is, those subjects that are included in the state general education standard, or the "basic component", are paid by the state (more precisely, local authorities) in accordance with the number of students in the school. Everything else is pooled together by the founders, parents and sponsors. In some cases, Orthodox gymnasiums are prestigious educational institutions (Smolensk, Kursk), in others they are "small-format" educational institutions that sometimes cannot even provide the teaching of the entire cycle of subjects. However, in both schools, a significant (if not large) part of the staff is mainly not professional teachers, but parents.
The degree of "Orthodox load" on students varies in each specific educational institution. Usually required morning prayer, the study of the Law of God, participation in various events with an Orthodox coloring (matinees, holidays, prayer services for major church holidays). Singing in the choir, drawing also have a corresponding doctrinal theme. For high school students, subjects such as church history, a detailed study of the Bible and the lives of saints, Church Slavonic and classical languages can be introduced. There is always a confessor at the school - a priest who serves in the school church, takes confession and often teaches some subjects.
The effect of Orthodox pedagogy remains doubtful. Parents very often come to the conclusion that, contrary to expectations, studying in these schools, especially in high school, actually turns into “inoculation of atheism” (which is why, by the way, the vast majority of the clergy teach their children in a regular school). Orthodox teachers, in turn, complain that exorbitant demands are placed on them - they want them to turn their pets into "little angels", and this is impossible, if only because, for example, the situation in the family must also be Orthodox, and this occurs rarely. Both parents and teachers agree that children who willingly accept Orthodox dogma in the lower grades, after 12-13 years old, Orthodox education are critical. It must be borne in mind that beyond the threshold of school, children find themselves in a modern teenage environment that teaches them about life in its own way. As a result, a significant number of gymnasium students (10-20%), at their own request or at the insistence of their parents, are transferred to other schools.
The influence of the church on public educational institutions
The system of church and church-state education that we have described above is not designed for the bulk of the Russian population. It creates the skeleton of the church management system, forms the cadres of the clergy and raises the level of theological knowledge of the active part of the parishioners. In order to ensure its influence on society as a whole, to educate it in the Orthodox spirit, to build up the "meat" of the church organism, the modern ROC has neither the strength, nor the means, nor the skill.
Since the number of people systematically attending churches (“churched”) remains very small (according to various estimates, from 1–2% to 6–8% of the total number of Russian citizens), the Church attributes this to the remnants of atheistic education and hopes that the new generation Russians will be able to be brought up "in the faith." As mentioned above, the ROC does not have its own forces for this, and the only way out of this situation was the appeal of the Church to the state. It is through his means and opportunities that the ROC hopes to get young parishioners. According to the plan of church education activists, the first serious step along this path should be the mandatory introduction of the "Law of God" in secondary schools. However, due to the obvious unpreparedness for this most of the society and government officials, they prefer to move towards this goal in stages.
Priests and Orthodox activists came to regular schools in the early 1990s. Where they managed to come to an agreement with the directors, they began to teach the "Law of God" - as a rule, according to pre-revolutionary textbooks. In 1994, the Ministry of Education, upon discovering this practice, issued an order banning all religion classes, citing violations of the Constitution. The priests left the schools without much protest, as it was obvious that the experience had been a failure. Children refused to listen to boring sermons, parents and some teachers protested against the very idea, and representatives of other faiths worked much more efficiently in schools.
By 1997, the situation had changed dramatically. The reserves for the growth of the Orthodox infrastructure ran out, but here in September 1997 the new edition the law “On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations”, in the preamble of which the role of “traditional religions” (Orthodoxy, Islam and Buddhism) was emphasized. At the federal level, the ROC failed to achieve special privileges, although lush, but meaningless framework agreements on cooperation were signed with many ministries and departments. But at the regional level, the situation is different. Depending on their relations with the local authorities, the dioceses bargained for themselves certain special rights, including in the educational sphere.
In 1997-1999, in several regions of Russia, at the expense of local regional administrations, a course of instruction in the Orthodox faith began to be introduced in secondary schools. It was called differently: "Fundamentals and Values of Orthodoxy" (Belgorod), "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" (Kursk), an elective under the Law of God (Voronezh, Kaliningrad), "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture and Morality" (Novosibirsk, Smolensk), the history of the Church (Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don), an elective on the basics of Orthodoxy (Kemerovo), etc. The experience of the Kursk diocese, which, as stated, introduced teaching in almost half (300 out of 800) of the schools in the region, received the greatest fame and scale.
Although the results of the Kursk experiment turned out to be a fiction and in four years did not even lead to the creation methodological base, not to mention the greatly inflated number of schools participating in it (which the author managed to find out in April 2001 during the preparation of material for the Itogi magazine). The Moscow Patriarchate was inspired by the idea so passionately promoted by the representatives of the Kursk diocese at the annual Christmas readings. In 1999, the Patriarch sent a letter to the provincial bishops instructing them to introduce the teaching of the fundamentals of the Orthodox faith in schools in all regions of Russia. The last paragraph of this document is especially interesting: “If there are difficulties in teaching the fundamentals of the Orthodox Faith, calling the course “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” will not raise objections from teachers and directors of secular educational institutions brought up on an atheistic basis.”
A year later, the bishops reported that thirty-five regions had established close cooperation with local authorities and signed agreements on cooperation in the educational field. Then the Patriarch, as well as the head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev), began to publicly lobby for the idea of a course at the federal level. They insist not only on the obligatory existence of such an elective at school, but also on the fact that it should be in the main grid.
Teacher training
The introduction of the church into educational institutions is impossible without the assistance of religiously motivated representatives of the teaching staff. As a rule, each school has one or two teachers who believe in the usefulness of an Orthodox education, although they do not always attend church regularly. In each region there are also one or two school directors with similar ideas who are ready to use their school as an experimental platform for practicing the methods of Orthodox pedagogy. Initially, the diocesan administrations of the Russian Orthodox Church had enough of such enthusiasts to convince themselves and report to the top about cooperation with the education system. However, it gradually became clear that for a large-scale penetration into schools and the implementation of the task of introducing the “Law of God” in one form or another, trained qualified personnel are needed.
In 1996, the Church made an attempt, little noticed by the public, to identify and consolidate these personnel. A series of "scientific-practical" conferences, organized by diocesan administrations together with local educational institutions and regional administrations, took place almost simultaneously throughout the country. As a rule, they were called "readings" and were dedicated to the memory of the local saint. Although the readings were intended to be annual, they were repeated in only a few places a year later, and for the most part the initiative died down. The readings helped to finally determine the circle of Orthodox teachers, but at the same time revealed its limitations.
The further path of the church to the pedagogical community lay, firstly, through close cooperation with local authorities (which we wrote about above), and secondly, through penetration into the forges of personnel - pedagogical universities and universities.
Under development guidelines to the courses "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" at local pedagogical institutes(universities) departments (laboratories) of Orthodox pedagogy were created. Their exact number is unknown. However, there is no doubt that in each region where the “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” will be introduced, their own departments will be created to adapt the general course to local conditions. The existing departments are already teaching the appropriate courses not only for the teachers of the Fundamentals, but also for a part of the students, and are recruiting postgraduate students for themselves. The next logical step will be the introduction of the specialization “Orthodox Pedagogy” and the full-scale training of such teachers at public expense, as well as the introduction of student teachers of all other specialties to the “Basics” along the way.
So far, this whole process is being held back by the complete uncertainty of the authorities (especially at the federal level) about the initiatives of the church and the frank marginality of Orthodox education enthusiasts, who often do not enjoy special respect in the pedagogical community.
conclusions
The system of church education is weak, stagnating and suffering from chronic lack of money, lack of qualified personnel and modern educational and methodological literature, as well as contradictions between various ideological groups of the clergy. Even according to the most optimistic estimates of church apparatchiks, it still covers no more than 200,000 people, of whom three-quarters are Sunday school students.
The only way for the Church to expand its zone of influence is to educate a new generation of parishioners for itself. Since the ROC cannot find the strength to do this on its own, it is trying to shift this task onto the shoulders of the state. At the same time, "patriotic" "statist" slogans about the need to "revive Russia through the revival of spiritual life", etc. are actively used. At the federal level, this kind of rhetoric has become familiar over the past decade and has already begun to cause slight irritation. At the local level, it often meets with understanding, especially in the border regions of the "red belt" of Russia.
In the educational sphere, the ROC exploits the desire of some teachers to serve the interests of the state. At the same time, service to the state is replaced by obedience to the Church, which allegedly forms the "spiritual basis of the state." Although it is obvious that the social and state structure of Russia in its current form (separation of powers, “dictatorship of law”, the existence of civil society, a free press, the ideas of humanism and tolerance underlying this whole structure) has nothing to do with what is propagated and even more so in practice the modern ROC.
For the first time this trend was noted by the author in 1996-1997 on the example of the dioceses North Caucasus. For details see: Mitrokhin N. Orthodoxy in the North Caucasus // Factors of ethno-confessional identity in the post-Soviet society: Sat. articles. Moscow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1998, or We know more than a dozen places where they were held: Vladivostok, Vologda, Vyatka, Kemerovo, Michurinsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Smolensk, Tolyatti, Alma-Ata, but In all likelihood, there were more such places. In 1997-1999, similar readings were held in at least five more regions.
