Protest and Revolutionary Activities in the Orthodox Seminary Environment in the Early 1860s (Based on the Material of the Perm Theological Seminary)

The article examines the revolutionary activities of teachers and students of the Perm Theological Seminary under the leadership of A.I. Ikonnikov during the liberal reforms of Alexander II and measures to suppress them. The events analyzed are an example of the reception of revolutionary views in a theological school and the formation of rebellious traditions half a century before the revolution of 1905-1907, when the protest movement in the seminary environment unfolded on a full scale. Revolutionary ideas found understanding among teachers and students in connection with everyday and organizational problems in theological educational institutions, the growth of self-awareness of the clergy and the blurring of class boundaries in the process of reforms of Alexander II and the modernization of the 60-70s of the 19th century launched by them, increasing demands of representatives of the clergy on the conditions of their life, study and service. In the seminary environment, discontent was expressed through disobedience, riots, and even (though not often in the 1860s) revolutionary activity. The movement based on revolutionary ideology in the Perm Theological Seminary went from being a legal self-education circle to a secret society that carried out anti-government activities and became a kind of branch of a larger and more diverse underground organization - the Perm Circle of Revolutionary Educators.