From “Secret Gatherings” to “Underground Society”: Alexander Rumyantsev’s Circle at the Vologda Theological Seminary as Interpreted by the Russian Authorities (1860s)

The article analyzes the various departments reaction of the judicial and investigative system to the Vologda Theological Seminary students’ circle activities as a new phenomenon in the political space of the Russian Empire in the early 1860s. The specifics of the case, in which members of the clergy were in the dock, determined both the participation of the church authority and the nature of the discussion about the ideal
Orthodox shepherd moral image shortly before the anticipated seminary reform. The rivalries between the police-administrative and judicial structures that emerged during the investigation are discussed in the context of the «unity of administration» problem. The analysis of the various positions of the departments involved in the investigation gives the author the opportunity to raise the question about the role of the judicial reform of 1864 in the development of policy regarding the revolutionary movement. According to the author, the appearance of judicial figures guided by the legality concept determined the emergence in the pre-reform period of different interpretations of the revolutionary threat a trend that became clearly visible after the introduction of judicial statutes in 1864 and the first resonant trial against members of the protest movement in the second half of the 1860–1870s, which were held on new bases.