Reading in the life of the Russian church historians in the 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries

The article is devoted to the role of reading in the life of church historians of the 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries, the period of the highest development of the church historical science. In concordance with intellectual history, one of the topical research directions, to understand the concepts and approaches of historians it is important to consider the context of the origin of ideas in their works. One of the components of this context is the characteristics of church historians as readers. The sources were autobiographical and official documents, correspondence papers, historical works of Metropolitan Eugenius (Bolkhovitinov), Archbishop Philaret (Gumilevsky), Metropolitan Makariy (Bulgakov), A.V. Gorsky, N.P. Gilyarov-Platonov, E.E. Golubinsky, V.V. Bolotov, M.E. Pos-nov and others. A significant role in shaping church historians as readers belonged to the years of study - the period of permanent self-education. The prevailing occupation among the students of seminaries and academies was reading historical literature and fiction, including literature in foreign languages. In theological seminaries and academies societies were created to discuss the literature read, for example, a society called "Scientific discussion" in Moscow Theological Academy. A significant proportion of literature was literary, political, historical and theological journals. Among the most popular periodicals were Moskovskiy telegraf (Moscow Telegraph), Vestnik Yevropy (Herald of Europe), Russkaya mysl' (Russian Idea), Otechestvennyye zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), Strannik (The Pilgrim), Khristianskoye chteniye (Christian Reading), Bogoslovskiy vestnik (Theological Journal) and others. Historians read unique books and manuscripts in foreign missions. Researchers bought books for libraries in Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek. Church historians fulfilled such an important mission as involving the younger generation in reading. Historians teaching in seminaries and academies recommended students to read books, taught to work with the scientific literature, cultivated the culture of reading. Church historians were often wealthy owners of private libraries, they bequeathed books to ecclesiastical and secular schools, monasteries and temples. The writings of church historians reflected all they read in their student years and later. The analysis of bibliographic references indicates historians' superior knowledge of works of their predecessors and contemporaries. Historians did not only know about new books, but also used them in research. Their writings have references to the newest and best monographs, articles in periodicals and scientific journals.

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