Professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy on Educational Reform: Dreams and the Reality of Authoritarian Modernization

This article reconstructs the views of professors from the Kyiv Theological Academy on educational reform within the broader context of the Russian Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study aims to identify the value foundations of the educational reform models proposed by professors from the Kyiv Theological Academy and to analyze their historical and ideological determinants. The article demonstrates that, on the one hand, the professors based their projects on the fundamental principles and values of modernity, while, on the other hand, they were unanimous in opposing total bureaucratic control over educational institutions and the restriction of academic freedoms. This paradox, that the state must create and develop the educational system as a tool for its own self-preservation and development, while at the same time restricting its control over it, was addressed by the professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy through the concept of religious education or the Christianization of the school based on conservative values. It is emphasized that this conflict of values was conditioned by dependence on the official ideological doctrine, which contained internal contradictions characteristic of all projects of authoritarian modernization. The conclusion notes that, despite a certain degree of archaism, the ideas of the professors of the Kyiv Theological Academy may be useful in seeking a balance between conservative and liberal values for building an adaptive and inclusive educational system in Ukraine that takes into account national traditions and contemporary challenges.