HAKHICHEVAN-ON-DON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND ITS ROLE IN THE UPBRINGING AND EDUCATION OF ARMENIAN YOUTH

Abstract

This article is devoted to the Nakhichevan Theological Seminary and its role in the upbringing of Armenian youth in Nakhichevan-on-Don. The history of the Nakhichevan Theological Seminary, numbering about forty years of its existence, has not become the subject of special research. The article is based on materials from the State Archives of the Rostov Region, many of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The work examines both the main stages of the formation of the theological seminary itself, and the problems of selecting its teaching staff. Particular attention in the article is paid to the problems that the leadership of the theological seminary had to face, as well as to the solution of the difficulties that the government of the Russian Empire posed. The article provides facts that testify to the assistance that was provided to this educational institution by both the city government and ordinary citizens. The Nakhichevan Theological Seminary was founded in 1881, after the Armenian Khalibov School in Feodosia was closed. It is noteworthy that most of the subjects in the theological seminary were studied in Armenian, and only a few of them in Russian. The graduates of the seminary faced a choice: either to build their spiritual education in Echmiadzin, or to receive a secular education in the future. It was at the expense of the graduates of the seminary that the entire staff of priests in the city of Nakhichevan-on-Don and surrounding Armenian villages was recruited. In addition, the article focuses on those difficulties and vicissitudes of life that, to one degree or another, prevent the graduates of the theological seminary from improving their lives and getting a decent higher education after the 1917 revolution. The closure of the theological seminary after the establishment of Soviet power took place in line with the policy pursued by the Bolsheviks in relation to religion and the church. The contribution of the seminary in the formation of the intellectual elite and teaching staff, to the preparation of which this educational institution was directly related, is noted.