Archpriest Alexander Pavlovich Smirnov as Rector of Moscow Theological Schools

Abstract

The article is devoted to the little-studied activity of the famous Moscow pastor Archpriest Alexander Pavlovich Smirnov as Rector of the Moscow Theological Schools (1949–1950). Mitred Archpriest A. P. Smirnov (1888–1950) was one of the closest aides of Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky) and Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky) in the 1940s. In the last period of his life Fr. Alexander headed the Moscow Theological Schools. For the theological school, it was a time of formation and development within the walls of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the rector's work continued the best endeavors of his predecessors. The main sources for the article were little-studied archival materials that preserved information about the life of Moscow theological schools of that time: minutes of meetings of the Academic Council of the Academy and Seminary, annual reports and personal files of teachers. The determining source was the personal file of Fr. A. P. Smirnov, kept in the archives of the Moscow Theological Academy, on the basis of which it was possible to learn the details of his early biography and activities at the Academy. Based on a comparative method of studying archival data, memoirs of contemporaries, and other sources, the article attempts to reconstruct the fullest possible picture of Fr. A. P. Smirnov’s activities as rector of the Moscow Theological Schools.