Artistic Taste Research Articles

Selected peasant issues of the 1930s in the opinions of Warsaw literary magazine columnists (Wiadomości Literackie, Prosto z Mostu, and Pion)

In the press of the interwar period, among the group of Warsaw opinion-forming periodicals, the three largest literary and social weeklies dominated – the liberal Wiadomości Literackie, the pro-Sanacja Pion and the right-wing Prosto z Mostu. These periodicals shaped the artistic tastes and socio-political views of the progressive intelligentsia. They commented on the most important events of literary and social life, including those related to the activity of rural residents. The article contains the results of a comparative analysis of the speeches of critics and columnists of the capital’s literary magazines in the 1930s, relating to selected forms of social, cultural and political activity of peasants (literary and diary works, as well as strike actions). The study deals with the main themes of press discussions and literary critical essays, referring to the constitutive features of peasant literature, the social image of the village (Jalu Kurek’s novel Grypa szaleje w Naprawie), the living conditions of peasants (Pamiętniki chłopów) and their political attitudes (the Great Peasant Uprising). The interpretation of press materials allowed for the formulation of conclusions about the press image of a cruel and hungry peasant, culturally excluded, and deprived of a chance to change his living conditions. The demands for the social advancement of peasants put forward by columnists of Warsaw magazines were mostly declarative and conservative.

The Kyiv “Incident”: A War of Statutes

The paper focuses on the reconstruction and analysis of the so-called Kyiv “incident” (1908) that marked a new type of conflict in the theatre life and developed a new disposition in the theatrical community. What constituted the incident was a collective refusal of the actors to proceed with the play until the theatre reporter and critic Petr Yartsev (1870–1930) would not leave the premises of the Solovtsov theatre. This “incident” roused the theatrical community, becoming the subject of intense discussions in the All-Russia press during the 1908–1910. It was covered in dozens of short notices and disputes; however, it was never analyzed from the standpoint of the change in statuses and dispositions: the researchers mainly pointed out at the “progressive” aesthetic ideas of the Moscow critic and backward province. This, probably unintentionally, again trapped the discussion within the limitations of the “Russian world.” Sometimes, though, Petr Yartsev, the theatre journalist who provoked the conflict, was even considered conservative in his artistic taste (while, in reality, someone’s aesthetic taste is not relevant until it becomes a factor of a proven impact or a marked of a covert collision). Nevertheless, the witnesses and participants of the “incident” left enough testimonies to analyze it as a marker of new tendencies in the theatre culture, in particular, as a marker of development of new relations between theatre and theatre journalism, especially taking into account that during the period, similar incidents occurred not only in Kyiv. Hence, this phenomenon became widespread and revealed the new type of conflict. A. Kugel, an editor of the Saint Petersburg journal Theatre and Art (Teatr i iskusstvo), played a significant role in development of this new disposition. Having turned from the local event into the All-Russia war of statuses, the Kyiv “incident” announced the era of the new type of conflicts (metropolis vs province, art vs the press). The court judgement in favor of the press became a precedent that defined the new rules and boundaries in the relations between theatre and the press.

“Davydova Skolota”: a historical-philological note to the text of the Primary Chronicle of Rus

The article examines a fragment of the Rus Primary Chronicle’s entry for 1097, in which the hapax legomenon “skolota” is used in relation with the accusations of Prince Davyd Ihorovych of Volodymyr in blinding Prince Vasylko Rostyslavych of Terebovl. The article analyses the tradition of interpretation of this word in the late medieval and early modern texts, namely chronicle compilations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as well as in Vasilii Tatischev’s historical work. It has been demonstrated that the authors or scribes of these texts did not understand the word “skolota” precisely. They tried to replace it with another expression, rephrase the phrase, or simply shorten this fragment of the Primary Chronicle. The versions of the translation of the relevant place of the text in modern scholarly translations into different languages are reviewed. In most cases, scholars have interpreted the word “skolota” and the relevant passage of the chronicle based on a general understanding of the context and artistic taste. The possible origin of the word is examined. Its place in the chronicle narrative, specifically in the context of the characters’ direct speech. The authors conclude that the word “skolota” has a Slavic etymology and is one of the relics of the Kyivan Rus elite’s vernacular.

A forgotten collector: Archdeacon Smythe and his collection of British watercolours in New Zealand

Francis Henry Dumville Smythe (1873–1966), a humble clergyman from England, spent a lifetime amassing his private collection of British watercolours. During the 1950s, he decided to gift the bulk of them to two art institutions in New Zealand – Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Wellington. They were welcomed with open arms and celebrated as “the finest collection of water colour pictures in the Southern Hemisphere.” However, they soon fell out of favour as shifting aesthetic tastes and calls for a new national identity dominated the art scene in New Zealand during the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper will examine Smythe’s collecting habits and tastes in art, as well as the formation, gifting and reception of the collection in Wellington and Dunedin. It is based on two chapters from the author’s PhD thesis “A Matter of Taste: The Fate of the Archdeacon Smythe Collection of British Watercolours in New Zealand” (2021).

ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ИНТЕРАКТИВНЫХ МЕТОДОВ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ ОБРАЗОВАНИИ В КЛАССЕ

The education system, the solution of the need for knowledge for a person in accordance with its actual natural feature of each subject is a requirement of the moment. In the end, we are faced with an assessment and vision of how education can be a bridge between a teacher and a student at universities, at what point it can be broad, open, free, active, and what are the questions about approaches, methods, and features of technologies that carry out creative thinking between them. Therefore, when solving this issue, such issues as the education of competent, creative, active personalities from kindergarten to universities, the awakening of “mine”, the development of independent thinking, orientation to a critical attitude to the surrounding world, the search for truth, the activation of spiritual and moral consciousness, the education of artistic taste are acutely raised. Therefore, today there is an urgent problem of increasing the “creative activity " of students through the use of new technologies - interactive teaching methods, when there is a process of globalization of education. So, the content of the article was that the student, in accordance with his abilities, psychological activity of an internal nature, intelligence, ingenuity in mastering various knowledge, methods and the ability to obtain the necessary knowledge through their practical implementation in practice and the application of the above implementation in the educational process.

The Implicit Politics of Physical Beauty and of Artistic Taste in the Aesthetics of Winckelmann

This essay argues that Winckelmann’s analysis of the “Greek profile,” a study of what he described as a critical feature in the facial contour of good Greek statues, has its implicit political issue relating to racism, anthropology, and social hierarchy. Focusing on this artistic-political nexus, I begin with the Greek profile, then consider how the superiority of Greek physiognomy and culture introduces factors of environmental privilege and racial superiority, and finally turn to the implicit politics of Winckelmann’s theory of artistic taste.

Literature and mass communication: signs of interaction (based on the Myroslav Dochinets’ creative work)

The article examines the creative work of the contemporary Ukrainian writer M. Dochynets in the context of literary trends and the mass communication space of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The goal of the study was to determine the signs of mass communication in the most expressive works of the author. The analysis was carried out using general scientific (analysis, synthesis, description) and special literary methods (socio-historical, biographical, genetic, imagological, interdisciplinary). It was found that the writer’s texts have “two artistic dimensions”, the interpretation of which depends on the education, intellectual level and artistic and aesthetic tastes of the recipient. The first, “elitist”, forms a kind of selected elite community, capable of decoding the historical, cultural, and artistic subtext. The second is that it is “intended for a wide audience” that is not immersed in the cultural, artistic and literary context. M. Dochynets, actively using the signs of mass communication (dissemination by means of mass communication, orientation towards a mass audience, performance of social functions) at the genre, imaginative, stylistic and problem-thematic level, seeks to involve them in understanding with the help of models typical for the masses important philosophical and social problems, raise the level of education and develop artistic taste, aesthetic worldview.

Need and Value of Preserving Folklore

Folklore forms a large part of society. The term folklore is a compound English word that has a Germanic root and is used to mean wisdom, intellect and knowledge of the people. Folklore plays a significant role and assists future generations in understanding the life, thoughts, traditions, social aspects, national values, histories, pride and other things of the people of their nation. As a result, it can be easily compared with the current situation and take advantage of early experiences, because folklore can provide considerable needed elements and materials with respect to social, political, economic and historical research. It is a fact that folklore has a fundamental value in the literary history, political history, economic aspects and artistic tastes of a language. The significance of collecting folklore is that it strengthens the spiritual and material relationship of the people associated with their lives and tells each other thoughts, feelings, emotions and aspirations.
 Another importance of collecting folklore is that it can be used in the study of linguistics, sociology, literary studies, social relations, and human civilization. Researchers in this field are required to pay attention to the folkloric elements of the people. If not so, their work will be insignificant. If we look at the history of folklore, it is clear that when humans faced natural disasters, they did not have any scientific approach to investigate the respective events, but rather their own thoughts and experiences. Keeping in mind those assumptions and experiences, we can predict that folkloric suppositions and experiments were the data for present researchers, which were based on experiments and now based on scientific facts that show the worth of folklore in society.

The Man of Action of French Romanticism. Aesthetic Views of Victor Hugo and their Embodiment in Poetry and Dramaturgy

The subject of the study is the fundamental philosophical and aesthetic problems in the romantic aesthetics of one of its leaders in France - Victor Hugo. The evolution of his aesthetic views is traced - from adherence to the aesthetics of classicism and royalist views to the established theory and artistic practice of romanticism, colored with democratic pathos. The core of Hugo's aesthetics is revealed - the original concept of the grotesque, which has found a convincing embodiment in his poetry, drama, historical novels. Such main themes as the correlation of the tragic and the comic, the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, content and form, freedom and order, historical truth and fiction in art, romantic symbolization in the context of the formation of the concept of the artistic essence of romanticism by Hugo are considered. The features of his artistic and aesthetic concept related to the national specifics of art, local color, the problems of artistic taste, inspiration, imagination, aesthetic pleasure, artistic style, genius, talent are analyzed. The main conclusion of the study is the conclusion that all these topics form the basis of Hugo's judgments about the nature of romantic drama as the pinnacle of 19th century poetry and its differences from classic tragedy. The multidimensional nature of this study predetermined the use of a number of methodological approaches: philosophical and aesthetic approach, art history analysis, comparative, interdisciplinary methods. The author's special contribution lies in the fact that the study of Hugo's aesthetic theory and artistic practice is based on original material. The article provides a comparative analysis of the embodiment of Hugo's aesthetic views in various types and genres of art. Such a study was undertaken for the first time in domestic science.

The creation of Krystian Lupa’s Mo Fei (adapted from Shi Tiesheng’s works): A co-operation of Polish theatre in the Chinese theatre industry

In this article, the author analyzes the dramatic work Mo Fei, adapted from several pieces by the contemporary Chinese writer Shi Tiesheng by Polish director Krystian Lupa in 2017. The analysis pays particular to exploring the creation from the original text to the stage work. Mo Fei has been regarded as a successful adaptation, which brought about metaphysical, spiritual content rarely seen in the contemporary Chinese theatre. Lupa adapted Shi’s works based on existentialist philosophy, using unique theatrical methods and techniques of expression not presented in the original work. As an experienced international director, Lupa’s adaptation reflected his characteristic and preferred aesthetic. His directing methods and artistic taste were reflected in his adaption of Mo Fei, including the practice of laboratory rehearsal and pursuit of inner life (similar to Grotowski). These aspects of Lupa’s work have essential inspirations for the Chinese theatre industry.

Collection of solfeggi by Carlo Broschi (Farinelli): the artistic top of bel canto’ methodical literature

Statement of the problem. In the history of art, there are many figures that over the centuries arouse admiration and encourage research. Carlo Broschi (1704–1782), the Italian opera castrato singer known as Farinelli, is certainly one of them. Despite his widespread fame as an brilliant artist and social figure, Brosky’s own achievements in the field of musical composition, including the arrangement and ornamentation of the works of other celebrated musicians of the era, have not yet received the appropriate scientific understanding. In addition, the practical aspects of the initial period of shaping the bel canto vocal technique are mostly left out of the attention of researchers. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to analyze the artistic and methodical value of the collection of Farinelli’s vocal exercises in aspect of reconstructing the practice of set and improvement of the singing voice. For the first time, Farinelli’s collection of 10 solfeggi is considered in terms of its belonging to the system of musical education in the Neapolitan conservatories of the 18th century. A comprehensive approach to the study of the material is applied: the historical-critical method is used to determine the reliability and characteristics of the sources; the comparative-descriptive method is employed to define the artistic significance of Farinelli’s methodical miniatures; the performance analysis is aimed at studying the methodical content of his vocal exercises. The study is related to the works of Ukrainian musicologists on general issues of the genre of vocal exercises (Antoniuk, 2007), the bel canto style (Boiko, 2015; Stakhevych, 2013), as well as on the publications of leading foreign scholars, devoted to the art of castrato singers, the work of Farinelli and problems of singer education in Neapolitan conservatories (Haböck, 1923, 1927; Barbier, 1989, 1994; Gjerdingen, 2007, 2010; Sanguinetti, 2005; Baragwanath, 2015, 2020). For the first time, the Italian musicologist Luigi Verdi (2018) turned to Farinelli’s collection of solfeggi; he published the texts of the vocal exercises in modern notation. However, none of the mentioned scientific sources is the result of practical training on the exercises, which interests us in the first place. Research results. Each of the exercises contains two parts contrasting in character and tempo (Adagio and Allegro). All exercises are written for the range typical of a female soprano, not for a castrato voice. Probably, like other singing teachers, Farinelli was composing exercises for his students (it is possible that he wrote solfeggi for the Duchess of Parma Maria Amalia). The best way to explore the methodological potential of Farinelli’s exercises is to try practicing them. Farinelli’s exercises are extremely difficult for a vocalist. These vocalizations bring up namely the extraordinary qualities of the singer – extreme endurance and full breath control, lightness, mobility, dexterity of the larynx, purity of intonation, a magical way of inventing and performing ornamentation (messa di voce, trills, all kinds of combined embellishments), the ability to easily perform not only coloratura passages, but also leaps to wide intervals. Given the high artistic level of the exercises, it is obvious that Farinelli sought to combine the solution of technical problems with the aesthetic enjoyment of the process of classes, the creative joy of singing. So, Farinelli’s exercises, provided the accompaniment part is reconstructed, can be perceived as full-fledged works of art and become the part of vocal repertoire. Conclusion. The methodical content of Farinelli’s collection of 10 solfeggi should be defined as the high point of a long line of traditional methodical developments of Neapolitan vocal teachers, aimed at the formation of artistic taste within the normative parameters of the «gallant style», at the practical mastering and improvement of vocal technique, development of musical ingenuity, imaginative variety and exceptional expressiveness of performance – that is, of everything that made up the essence of the concept of a bel canto’ virtuoso.

The Influence of the Integration of Transcontinental Traditional Craft on the Development of Ethnic Culture

This paper mainly analyzes the feasibility of the integration of different ethnic traditions from the perspective of transcontinental. The main research object is the weaving and dyeing craft of the Malay, Dong and She ethnic groups. In order to demonstrate the view that "integration of traditional craft has a positive role in promoting the development of national culture", the researcher used field research, literature analysis, studio research, etc., to make a comparative analysis of the dyeing and weaving craft of the Malay, Dong and She ethnic groups. The research shows that there are similarities in the traditional dyeing and weaving processes of these three ethnic groups. No matter the production techniques, pattern elements or color matching, they can be restructured and integrated in the process innovation. Therefore, through the fiber creation experiment, the researcher demonstrated that the application of contemporary art creation concept can not only improve the artistic taste of traditional craft, but also enrich the transmission channels of ethnic culture and enhance the self-confidence of culture. The integration of traditional crafts promotes the political cultural exchanges of different nationalities and promotes the development of ethnic culture.

Британские антиквары в Риме второй половины XVIII века

In the second half of the 18th century, an antique market flourished in Rome. That was largely due to the increased interest in the culture of the Ancient World, associated with excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as with the activities of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was convinced of the need to turn to the art of antiquity, which, in his opinion, had ideal beauty and was capable of cultivating a noble artistic taste. In European countries and in Russia, collections of antiques were formed during that period. Travelers who came to Rome tended to buy ancient sculptures, gems, vases. They turned to antique dealers working in this art market. A special place among the antique dealers belonged to the British, such as Gavin Hamilton, Thomas Jenkins and James Byres. It is largely thanks to their efforts that excellent private collections of ancient art have been formed in Great Britain and interest in art in general has been developing. The article examines the activities of these antique dealers on the examples of two English collectors depicted in the portraits of the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni: William Weddell and Peter Beckford.

Methods of Teaching Graphic Design in HEIs for Art

Under the conditions of digitalization in technology and art, there is a sense of significant changes in visual creativity, where design projects are given not only new artistic expressiveness, but everything becomes an immeasurable resource base and source of inspiration for future graphic designers. This new reality encourages the permanent updating of approaches and the use of innovative methods of teaching graphic design in HEIs for art in the process of preparing for the professional activity of a future graphic designer. Therefore, a modern graphic designer, being the creator of a demanded graphic product that meets the requirements of business and clients, must have a sense of style, and artistic taste, track new trends in graphic design, be versed in styles, be creative, able to create original innovative design projects, have technical knowledge and computer programs, etc. The research aims to establish a pattern of promoting the use of differentiated methods of teaching graphic design in higher education institutions for art. The goal can be achieved by surveying higher education students on the Internet to determine the ability of HEIs for art to apply effective methods of teaching graphic design. Research methods: comparative analysis; systematization; generalization; survey. Results. The survey among higher education students found that online graphic design platforms such as Canva (98.3%), Pixlr (94.1%), Design Wizard (93.8%), Visme (92.4%), Snappa (89.8%), BeFunky (89.2%), etc. contribute to the formation of professional skills in the field of graphic design. It has been found that the following graphic design programs on PCs, namely Adobe Photoshop (95.5%), Affinity Designer (95.3%), Gravit Designer (91.5%), Adobe InDesign (89.9%), Adobe Illustrator (89.5%), best contribute to the formation of professional skills in future graphic designers. It has been determined that 3D graphic design programs such as Paint3D (91.9%), Autodesk Maya (89%), Sumo3D (87.9%), Blender (85.7%), Autodesk 3ds Max (83.3%), ZBrush (81.5%), etc. are the most conducive to the formation of professional skills. The study has revealed which methods of teaching graphic design in HEIs for art are used by teachers. These include innovative methods (91.8%), the method of graphic modeling (89.8%), the method of observation and independent reproduction of certain artistic images through graphic design (87.3%), the method of graphic illustration (86.2%), the method of projective and graphic form finding (81%), etc. It has been established that the successful implementation of differentiated methods of teaching graphic design in HEIs for art contributes to the formation of skills in using modern computer graphics programs to create design objects (91.2%), the ability to use basic skills in project graphics (89.3%), the ability to know color science to create a coloristic solution for a future design object (89%), etc.

The Return of African Antiquities and the Ambiguity of the “Romantic” Colonial: Nigeria Magazine and the Benin and Ife Bronzes

The Return of African Antiquities and the Ambiguity of the “Romantic” Colonial: Nigeria Magazine and the Benin and Ife Bronzes Terri Ochiagha Introduction On 29 April 2021, the German government announced that a “substantial number” of Benin bronzes, looted amidst extreme violence from the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria by British colonial forces in February 1897, are scheduled for return to the country in 2022, to be permanently held at the Edo Museum of West African Art when it opens in 2025.2 The ownership of these antiquities, currently in the custody of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and the thousands of exemplars held in other Western museums, educational institutions and private collections, has been politically fraught for decades.3 Germany’s decision follows on the heels of recent agreements between the Legacy Restoration Trust—a Nigerian organisation tasked with the restitution of Nigeria’s artistic treasures, born out of discussions among the Oba of Benin, the Benin Dialogue Group, the Edo State Government, Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments—and a number of Western individuals and institutions.4 In recent years, the momentum of Rhodes Must Fall, Black Lives Matter and the Report on the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics (better known as the Sarr-Savoy Report5) has reinvigorated global debate around the restitution of African art, originally impelled by “African intellectuals, politicians and museum professionals just after 1960.”6 Contemporary conversations, concluded agreements and ongoing negotiations mark a historical watershed. The demands for the return of African cultural objects in Nigeria antedate self-rule, however. A traditional ruler, Akenzua II (1899–1978), the Oba of Benin, initiated the first documented demand for the return of looted antiquities—in this case two ceremonial stools—in February 1935.7 Almost coetaneously, the first sustained fight for the return of antiquities and the creation of museums in Nigeria emerged and found expression in a periodical linked to the colonial education department: The Nigerian Teacher (1933–36) and its successor, Nigeria. The founding editor, Edward Harland Duckworth, spearheaded the discussion of these matters in the magazine, in collaboration with fellow education officer Kenneth C. Murray, who eventually became Nigeria’s first Surveyor of Antiquities. Murray’s role as the “founding father of the Nigerian museum movement” has received a degree of scholarly attention.8 Duckworth’s involvement—which was mostly discursive, but occasionally manifested as direct lobbying—has been discussed but cursorily,9 despite the magazine’s key role in the dissemination of the value of Nigerian art in the colony and the metropole. Concentrating on the years of Duckworth’s editorship of The Nigerian Teacher and Nigeria (1933–1953), this article fills a gap in the long history of the returns movement by examining the magazine’s discursive interventions in the light of the colonial educational contexts that framed them. It argues that the magazine was central and not ancillary to the political manoeuvres that underpinned the fight for the return of antiquities, and zooms in on the connection between Nigeria’s “romantic” cultural militancy and its “adaptationist” educational ethos, as well as the psycho-political implications of Nigeria’s self-appointed role as arbiter of culture and artistic taste. Despite the considerable material and legislative achievements of Nigeria’s returns crusade, it operated in ideologically muddied waters that were simultaneously aligned with and at odds with changes in colonial policy in the wake of World War II, a fact that thwarted its cultural and educational potential. An unlikely champion of the Arts In 1931, Nigeria’s colonial Director of Education, E.R.J. Hussey, recruited Edward Harland Duckworth (1894–1972) with the title of Inspector of Education to reconfigure science teaching in Nigerian secondary schools, with particular emphasis on the elite government colleges. His work mostly consisted of mapping out pedagogical principles and reporting on their application in both government and mission secondary schools. Two years into their close personal and professional relationship (at this time, Duckworth’s inspectorial duties were becoming somewhat superseded by public relations administrative tasks at the Education Department’s headquarters), Hussey appointed Duckworth to revive the dormant Bulletin of Educational Affairs...

British Formalist Aesthetics and Its Literary Writing Practice

British Formalist Aesthetics and Its Literary Writing Practice

DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE ABILITIES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The role of creative ability in the formation of children's worldview is invaluable. Children's artistic taste is formed through their creative abilities. After all, the process of formation of imagination and concepts in a child starts from the preschool educational institution, and this period is the most important stage in terms of the content of the formation of the worldview. That is why preschool age is the main period in the formation of concepts and ideas.

Vliyanie rossijskoj kul'tury na razvitie fortepiannogo iskusstva v Kitae

Forming a spiritual atmosphere, artistic tastes, style and genres in piano art, Chinese culture has only been enriched by the diversity of the cultural palette. But the professional piano art of China began to form only during the last century on the basis of European traditions and next to the original national musical culture.

About the Arabian poet and hanif Umaiya ibn Abī s-Salt in al Masoudi’s Work Meadows of Gold and the Mines of Germs (d. 956)

Umayya b. Abu 'l-Salt is one of the remarkable personalities of the Arabic historical tradition about Pre-Islamic Arabia. Extremely peculiar are the materials, that are dedicated to him in the «Meadows of Gold and the Mines of Germs» by the great Arabic historian, geographer and man of letters al-Mas‘udi (d. 956). The said work is the main book by the mentioned Author. In organizing these materials al-Mas‘udi displays a high degree of literary skill and artistic taste.

Russian Literature of the 19th — Early 20th Centuries in the Infosphere of Theological Academies of the Russian Empire

The purpose of the article is an attempt to develop approaches to the reconstruction of the place and role of literature in the intellectual and information sphere of Russian theological academies of the nineteenth — early twentieth centuries. The current publication has been prepared on the basis of sources of various origins: catalogs of libraries of theological academies, periodicals published in the Orthodox theological academies of the Russian Empire (Khristianskoe chtenie (Christian Reading), Trudy Kievskoi Dukhovnoi Akademii (Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy), Pravoslavnyi sobesednik (Orthodox Interlocutor), Bogoslovskii vestnik (Theological Bulletin), for instance), Orthodox autobiographies, proceedings of meetings of councils of theological academies, programs of training courses, teaching manuals (textbooks and anthologies), etc. The analysis of those numerous sources shows that the libraries of four Orthodox theological academies of the Russian Empire had large collections of fiction in various languages, including works of Russian literature. Studying Russian literature was also part of a number of training courses. Initially, it was due not so much to the desire to provide students with a versatile education, but to the desire to develop their artistic taste and literary abilities, which was necessary for composing sermons. But later, literature was interpreted as something of powerful influence at a person’s worldview, something that could compete with religion. The study shows that the influence of contemporary Russian literature was constantly increasing, and, by the early twentieth century, the programs of theological educational institutions included studying works by almost all Russian writers. At the same time, not only ‘spiritual’ writings were studied, but also those which were considered ‘harmful’, and the last one got almost a central place in the ecclesiastic periodicals (L.N.Tolstoy).