EDUCATION OF THE SOUTH SLAVS AT KIEV THEOLOGICAL ACADEMY

Abstract

The article fully characterises education of the South Slavs at the Kiev Theological Academy according to the studying new archival documents. It was found the content of the educational process, the problems faced by foreign students and how they were solved in the academy. It is shown the Russian Empire authorities’ interest in the preparation of the clergy for the Balkans. It is exposed the solidarity of the South Slavic youth with the Ukrainian people concerning the non-acceptance of gendarmerie-police management methods in Ukraine. The fates of graduates after studying in Kiev are studied. The purpose of this study is to determine the reasons of education of the South Slavs at the Kiev Theological Academy, the content of the educational process and participation of the South Slavic youth in the public realities of contemporary Ukraine. In the early twentieth century and before the establishment of Soviet authority in Ukraine, the South Slavs received higher and professional education here. A small number of educational establishments at homeland, economic and political instability in the Balkans almost to the end of the First World War contributed to the moving of young people to foreign countries for education. The situation was used by countries, who inculcated their ideology on foreign students during the study process, justifying and ensuring the successful penetration of their policies on the lands of the South Slavs. Those students who studied in Ukraine, had to become the spokesmen for the interests of the Russian Empire in the Balkans. Actually, educational institutions successfully coped with these tasks. Thus, the Kiev Theological Academy defended and propagated the imperial ideas of tsarist Russia through education of foreigners in it. Selection of candidates from other countries for studying was not accidental. The religious factor was the leading in lobbying foreign policy interests of the Russian Empire. The South Slavs were represented by Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Bosnians with Herzegovinians. The Croats and Slovenes were called Austrian Slavs at that time in Russia, and since they belonged to the Catholic world, the work with them was in other spheres. The South Slavs who studied at the KTA were plunged into the social and political processes that took place in Ukraine, and together with the Ukrainian intelligentsia and studentship formed the international educational process that lasted in Ukraine till the establishment of the Bolshevik regime. The content of unsent letters to the home of Balkan students indicated an understanding of the difference between what the higher-education teaching personnel of the Academy said and what they saw and heard on the Kyiv streets and other cities of Ukraine. The South Slavic youth expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people concerning the non-acceptance of the gendarmerie-police management methods in Ukraine. The ideas of the Slavic consolidation and equality, declared by the Russian Empire and determined as the core of foreign policy activity, were not supported by the authorities on its lands. Understanding these circumstances, the South Slav students were cooled to imperial propaganda that Russia is the centre of Slavic unity and a fighter for the independence of the Balkan Slavs. Public moods of Ukrainian community significantly influenced the formation of such a position of the South Slavs.