The Phenomenon of Seminarism in Literature and History

Seminarian, bursak, Popovich — in the context of the 19th century the concept is ambiguous. On the one hand, it meant belonging to a certain class category or emphasized the student status of a young man studying at a theological seminary, on the other — a kind of collective negative image, which by the beginning of the twentieth century had acquired the features of a completely unchristened rebel. This article, based on the analysis of memoirs of famous writers and ex-seminarians, literary works and journalism of the 19th century, as well as a number of legislative documents, shows the gradual formation of contemporaries’ ideas about students of theological schools in Russia, flaws in the organization of the educational process in them and their manifestations in the deviant behavior of youth from the clergy. Methodological approaches of social history have made it possible to trace how a seminarian in conflict with the surrounding social environment finds himself in opposition to the status of a
future mentor, pastor, spiritual father, which his spiritual education allowed him to acquire. In conclusion, it is noted that during the period under review, there was a steady tendency for the seminarian community to separate into a subcultural group, which bore the seal of rejection, which was continued in the emergence of their “new” faith — faith in the creative power of revolution.