A Lyceum Catechist of a Provincial Town in the Conditions of the Education System Reformation in the Russian Empire of the 19 th-early 20 th centuries : Prosopographic Reconstruction

The importance of the research is caused by the significance of institutional history issues in modern history research, i.e. functioning of educational systems as a special field of interaction of state and society, various public institutions, science, an individual and generations (teachers and students). The purpose of the article is to determine the position of the lyceum catechist in a secular educational environment based on research of a particular era (19 early 20 centuries) and a specific region (Kazan as a typical provincial center of the Russian Empire). The main methodology of the research has become the prosopography method used to create the collective biographies by identifying a specific group of persons related to a common field and interests, representing a corporate community (in this case the Orthodox Church), implemented by the responses to the same questions. In the research, the authors obtained results showing a unique position of a lyceum catechist in the Russian Empire of specified period who belonged simultaneously to two corporations the clergy of the Orthodox Church and members of the educational community of secular secondary education. The requirements of each of these corporations to be met by their members often came into conflict between particular individuals. These circumstances have contributed to the deepening crisis of religious education in secular educational environment of the Russian Empire. The results presented in the article may be useful for the studies within the institutional history of education and the church, as well as for modern Russian discussions about the place of religion in a secular educational environment.


Background
Challenges faced by the modern educational system in Russia, stimulate the researchers to analyze the experience in this field.Especially significant is the research of the crisis periods experience, when contradictions that are less visible during periods of stable development are strongly aggravated during the crisis of any system.
Debates of modern Russia period regarding the place and importance of religion in the educational environment of secular society indicate that this problem has not been resolved and demand pre-revolutionary experience research (both positive and negative).

Status of the Problem
Modern Russian historical research pays much attention to the institutional history of education and study of a particular school's history or the totality of them as an integrated system of interacting elements in education.Special attention in recent years has been drawn to such a specific sector as a system of religion (Orthodox) education in the Russian Empire (Vishlenkova, 1998;Suchova, 2006).For a long time these questions were not raised in the national historiography but during soviet period a significant level of study of secondary education in pre-revolutionary Russia was achieved (Ganelin, 1947;Smirnov, 1954). of religion and secular education within a single pedagogical environment.As an example we can take a secular high school (as well as other secular secondary schools) in pre-revolutionary Russia, where the religious education (the element of theological education) was required (Ustav, 1864).However, the researchers of pre-revolutionary period while studying the history a particular educational institution (Vasiliev, 1900;Gvozdev, 1876, Lvov, 1885;and others) did not analyze the received information which could be useful for contemporary researchers and open a variety of opportunities for modern research.

The Research Hypothesis
It is impossible to understand the basic laws of development of religious education system in secondary schools without answering the following questions: who was involved in the process of teaching, what was their general and professional education, which requirements did they meet and what opportunities were provided for them?
In accordance with the Lyceum Charter of 1864 the teaching process was conducted by staff teachers -who had the status of public service employees -and hired teachers.Catechist belonged to the first category, along with the teachers of science and languages, calligraphy, drawing and painting, while the teachers of singing and gymnastics belonged to the second category (Ustav, 1864, p. 9-10).
On this basis, a school catechist, on the one hand, was equated with other staff teachers and belonged to the category of public service employees.On the other hand, as a person belonging to the clergy and at the same time working in the "Office of the Orthodox Confession", a catechist differed from the lyceum colleagues in a variety of aspects.The first significant difference can be seen in the process of hiring a catechist for work in secondary schools of the Ministry of Education.To do this, it was not enough to learn about the vacancy and to talk to the director of the school having a certificate of necessary level of the education.Lyceum regulations of 1864 and 1871 stipulated a separate contract item for a catechist regarding his hiring: "The Lyceum and Pro-lyceum Catechists have to be elected to the positions of Head teachers of these establishments, and getting prior approval from the local religion authorities, should be appointed the trustee of the school district" (Ustav, 1864 p. 9-10).So here beyond the direct bureaucratic chain of relationships (catechist -Director of the institution -the trustee of the school district) the diocesan bishop was involved.A catechist was reported to him as a clergy member and he was dependent of bishop's approval to be appointed to the position of a school teacher.Other teachers were appointed by Lyceum Director and the Trustee of educational district.
These circumstances make it possible to hypothesize the existence of lyceum catechist in two pas-parallel institutional systems that made general and specific demands, which could be contradictory.

The Objectives of the Research
In research the following problems were raised: 1) to identify groups of catechists representing different types of secondary schools in Kazan of the second half of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries; 2) To research their biographies on the basis of published and archival sources; 3) to compare and typologize the catechists biographies to identify common and special features; 4) to analyze the receive data in order to reconstruct on the basis of the results the realities of interaction between the secular and religion education systems in the environment of secondary education of the Russian Empire.

Theoretical and Empirical Methods
To test the hypothesis we used general scientific theoretical methods of analysis, synthesis, analogy as well as special-empirical methods: typologization, statistics and prosopography reconstruction.

The Basis of the Research
The research bases are Kazan secondary schools of the second half of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries, which represent different types of secondary schools (classical and professional; schools for boys and girls) located in one of the provincial centers of the Russian Empire.

The Stages of the Research
The research has been divided into three phases: In the first phase we selected several secondary schools typical for Russia in the second half of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries that located in Kazan, and revealed the names of the catechists who worked in the schools of that time namely those ones who taught Religion.
In the second phase the biographies of most of above-mentioned catechists have been recreated on the basis of published and archival sources and then we selected typical biographies of the most prominent ones.The biographies provided material for the analysis of the problem hypothesis.
In the third phase we compared the biographies in order to answer raised questions: if we can consider lyceum teaching as the main work for catechists or it was his additional load (often onerous); if there have been any conflicts between the system of secular and religious education, existing in a single lyceum environment and how did it affect the development of a lyceum as a whole and in the religious teaching in particular?

Evaluation Criteria
The hypothesis testing has been made on the basis of such criteria as the effectiveness of religious education in secular educational institutions of Kazan conducted by catechists -the Orthodox clergy.To assess the effectiveness it should be used not only the indicators of students' achievements but mainly the indicators that show the activity of the governing bodies in the field of the teachers retraining and improvement of the professional skills for catechists.

Proceedings and Description of the Experiment
At the initial stage of the experiment we chose few Kazan secondary educational establishments that belonged to different types of schools.Kazan boy's high school number 2 can be considered as a typical example of the classical school of the Russian Empire.Kazan Teachers' Institute was a typical vocational school of pre-revolutionary Russia.
The fallowing analysis of the catechists' biographies of these schools shows that the type of school does not affect the choice of a priest to teach the law of God.Very frequent were cases of teaching the basics of religion by the same person in schools of different types, as well as the cases of the staff moving.The implementation of standards is proved by the fact that during the above-mentioned period only clergy members who obtained diploma of higher education could teach God's Law in the provincial high schools and schools equivalent to them.Each of them took the position of a staff clergyman of a town or a school church.The career promotion of a clergyman did not depend on his teaching career although the latter was taken into account in getting various awards and titles.
It is revealed that the church authorities, making the decision to change the position of any clergyman could ignore his obligations in the institution where he worked as a full-time teacher.These circumstances caused conflicts that broke the balance on the relationships of the church and the state of the post reforming period.

Changing the Status of a Catechist during the Reform of the Education System in the Middle of the 19 th Century
The realities of lyceum catechists of the second half of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries differed significantly from the ones from previous decades.This is due to the fact that the development of a secular system of secondary and higher education was paralleled to the development of theological education system.In the first half of 18 th century only a small part of the Russian clergy could afford getting higher and sometimes secondary theological education.That time it was difficult to find qualified priests with higher education for new secular schools.While the situation in capital cities in this regard could still be satisfactory, in provincial cities, including Kazan, one could expect to find a good catechist only among the graduates of high seminary.That is why not surprising is the fact that the documents of that time did not present much information regarding the educational level of catechists.When in the second half of the 19 th century the secondary schools catechists of Kazan were the priests who had higher theological education or the degrees of master or sometimes doctors of theology.That time Kazan became the center of one of the secular schools districts of the Ministry of National Education and at the same time it was the center of the religious schools district due to opening here in 1842 the Religion Academy.Therefore, secondary schools of Kazan were in favor in comparison with other towns of Kazan School District: a large part of the Kazan clergy of the second half of the 19 th -early 20 th centuries had higher theological education and could hold the positions of catechists in the expanding network of educational institutions.Since that time the work of school catechists became an honorable duty for the city priests, raising their status in the internal hierarchical relationships, promoting their career and getting church and state awards.
At the same time comparing the secular and religious secondary schools -high schools and seminaries -it should be noted that, the lyceum had only one (sometimes two) staff catechist while seminary had many of them and that is why school catechists possessed higher status than their colleagues from theological schools and their positions corresponded to the positions of inspectors and directors.
Biographies of the individual catechists of Kazan school district illustrate the theses outlined above.For example, one of the catechists of the Kazan Rodoionovsky Institute for Noblegilrs, the priest A. A. Subbotin (1876A. Subbotin ( -1914) ) after graduating the Kazan Theological Academy in 1902 was appointed to Chernigov seminary to teach Logic, Philosophy, Psychology and Didactics.Since 1903, and for ten years, he headed the Department of Homiletics, Liturgics and Practice in Yaroslavl Theological Seminary.But when in summer of 1913 Rodionovsky Institute for Noblegirls got vacancy for the position of a catechist, A.A. Subbotin applied for it immediately (Pisarev, 1914).
This example shows that the position of a catechist in Kazan secondary schools was not less honorable as the position of the Department Head in Theological School.

The Analysis of the Catechists' Biographies of Kazan Boys' Lyceum Number Two
The first catechist (1835-1840) of Kazan boys' lyceum number two was Gavriil (Voskresensky), the Archimandrite of Kazan Assumption Zilant Monastery, who earlier was the Director of Orel and Mogilev seminaries.His move to Kazan was not demotion; on the contrary, it became one of the stages of his career promotion.It is noteworthy that simultaneously with the appointment to the lyceum he was hired to the position of a professor of the Church Right Department of the University of Kazan; later he started working at the same University at the Department of Philosophy (1835-1850).
Kazan period of his service and research activity ended after he was sent to work to Irkutsk eparchy.Nevertheless, we can see the high level of religion teaching in Kazan lyceum number two due to the fact that the teacher of religion was a professor of the University.
Later the teacher of religion in this school was A.G. Lastochkin (1840-1862), and then for a short time the position was occupied by the priest N.I.Muratovsky (1862Muratovsky ( -1863) ) and in 1857 the priest M.M. Zefirov, professor of Theology started his work in the school.The work of the professor as a school catechist demonstrated the prestige of this position in the second half of the XIX century.In 1869 M.M. Zefirov was appointed to the post of the Director of Tambov Theological Seminary, and in 1871 he returned to Kazan as a professor of the Orthodox theology in Kazan University, where he replaced Archpriest, the professor A.P. Vladimirsky, who became a Director of Kazan Theological Academy (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 92, 1/10359, p. 1-10).
On September, 1 in 1869 the catechist of the lyceum became Archpriest V.N.Berezhkovsky, who occupied this position till 1877 when he was appointed to the post of Seminary Director in Ufa.Such consecutive appointment of two catechists of a high school (secondary secular educational institution) to the position of the Seminary Director(secondary religious school), shows mutual correlation of these positions in the hierarchical structure of educational institutions of the Synod Office and the Ministry of Education.
In time when Archpriest V.N.Berezhkovsky worked in this school, Archpriest P.I.Vozdvizhensky started teaching God's Law in primary school (September, 1 of 1876).In so-called "advanced" groups of Kazan lyceum number 2 the Archpriest N.K. Milovidov (August 1, 1877) started his work instead of Archpriest V.N.Berezhkovsky, who moved to Ufa.N.K. Working at the lyceum N.K. Milovidov celebrated the 50 th anniversary of the school (1885).Thus, during the first 50 years of this school existence, three catechists of it, among six religion teachers, became Seminary Directors (Kazan lyceum, 2 nd, 1886, p. 18).Two of them were professors at the University and taught theology in school simultaneously.
We consider that it is important to analyze similar problems in comparison with other secondary schools of Kazan school district, which were opened in the post reforming period and witnessed the change of realities regarding the religion teaching in a secular school.

The Biographies Analysis of Catechists of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute
In 1876 Teachers' Training Institute was opened in Kazan, it was the year of the first publication of the complete Bible in Russian.The first catechist of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute was the priest V.A. Kurganov (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 92, 1/12514, р. 23).In opinion of one of the directors of the institute, he was "well-educated theologian, a man, strongly committed to teaching» (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/1, p. 27).
After completing Penza Theological Seminary (1850-1856) and graduating Kazan Theological Academy (1866-1870), in July 1872 he obtained the degree of Candidate of Theology, and by the time of appointment a catechist of Kazan Teachers' Institute, he already had a degree of Theology Master (16 January 1873).In September 4, 1877 the priest Kurganov was confirmed as a member of the board of religion teachers of Kazan eparchy and from September 1, 1879 he became a member of the Board of Kazan Theological Seminary from the part of the clergy.In 1882-1883 academic years, being a catechist of the Institute, he taught the Law of God in Kazan lyceum number 1 (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/96, p. 20-21; 1/188, p. 13 24).
In 1889, V.A.Kurganov was appointed the Director of Orel Seminary, at the same time he took monastic vows under the name Varsonofy and got the rank of Archimandrite (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/195, p. 1).Thus, here we can see the same case of appointment of a school catechist to the post of the Seminary Director as it was in Kazan boys' lyceum number two.This fact confirms the above thesis and shows cross-correlation of working places of religion teachers.Within 3 years the former catechist of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute was ordained a bishop (Lipakov, 2007, p. 75).
Leaving the post of the first catechist of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute in the middle of the school year, caused by his career promotion, describes the bureaucratic realities of the time.It was clear that administration could not find a new teacher quickly enough.From March, 1 to June 1, 1889 the catechist in the Institute was a priest of Intercession Church of Kazan, G. Bogoslovsky.(National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/195, p. 8).This choice could be explained by the fact that just since 1889, the Institute, which did not have its own house church, received the permission to pray in the Church of Intercession (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/205, p. 1).For some reason, school authorities did not consider it possible to have this priest at this position for the new school year.Perhaps at that time the levels of his education and teaching experience were considered insufficient, but after a quarter of a century, in 1913, the name of Archpriest G. Bogoslovsky we can see in different sources as a catechist of Kazan vocational school number two.
On June 1, 1889 the priest A.V. Smirnov was appointed to this position, earlier he held the same position in Volskaya teachers' seminary (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/195, p. 9).Here we should pay attention to the following: firstly, we can suppose that the priest A.V. Smirnov had the experience in the field of teaching in secondary school.This fact shows that the school authorities were interested in considered decision of appointment.Secondly, we can also suppose that being a teacher of Volskaya teachers' seminary and a priest in Volsk at the same time, A.V. Smirnov was a clergyman of other eparchy and was not capable to move to Kazan by order of the authorities of Kazan School District because he did not subordinate them.A priest of other eparchy could not move to other district without the approval of other district officials due to internal church bureaucratic relationships.In that case the eparchy authorities had to coordinate their decision with the one of school authorities.Despite there were no specific reasons to oppose this decision still there was a need for church authorities to adapt the decision of secular bureaucracy.This illustrates the reality of church-state relations in Russian Empire.
At the same time the analysis of A.V. Smirnov's biography allows to make the conclusion that he wanted to change his position himself.After completing Simbirsk Seminary, in 1884, he graduated Kazan Geological Academy and wanted to continue his research career but could not do it because of specific work requirements for the system of religion education and he started working as a catechist in the town Volsk of Simbirsk province.That was the reason why he, trying to find a chance to return to Kazan, got it as the vacancy in Kazan Teachers' Training Institute.That time he was preparing to defend his Master's thesis.It was obvious that he was not interested in work at the Institute, because he worked there for a short period of time.Beginning from December, 1 of 1889 he started working as a catechist in Rodionovsky Institute for Noblegirls (again the Directorate of the Teachers' Training Institute had to find another person in the middle of academic year) (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/195, р. 15).After a few months of teaching in Kazan Teachers' Training Institute and two years' work in Rodionovsky Institute for Noblegirls (1889-1891) he became a professor of Kazan Theological Academy (1892-1896), and later, a professor of Kazan Imperial University (1896)(1897)(1898)(1899)(1900)(1901)(1902)(1903)(1904)(1905)(1906)(1907)(1908)(1909)(1910)(1911)(1912).In 1899 he got the degree of Theology Doctor.It should be noted that beyond different books in philosophy and religion A.V. Smirnov, who taught in three schools, has published some research works in the field of religion teaching too.There he summarized his experience of Religion teaching.
Four year staff reshuffle in Kazan Teachers' Training Institute stopped on May, 11 of 1890, when the priest P.M. Rufimsky, 25 years old Master of Theology and graduator of Kazan Theological Academy, was appointed to the position of Religion teacher (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/221, р. 1; 150, 1/248; р. 12).After the appointment he was chosen a member of Kazan School Council and a member of Kazan Eparchy School Council (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/248, р. 12-13).Interesting is the fact that P.M. Rufimsky hold also the position of a teacher of Music at the Institute.It was rather infrequent for that time to hold more than one position because the work of Music teacher in contrast with a catechist's job was not regulated by Church.In 1896 P.M. Rufimsky became the Prior of Kazan Pyatnitskaya Church and it was the reason for school authorities to stop his teaching.At the end they allowed him to continue working till they would find a new teacher but no longer than up to January,1 of 1897.But he was discharged in August,1 of the same year (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/352а, р. 1-3; 150, 1/372, р. 5).It is not easy to understand why the position of Monastery Abbot was considered as an obstacle for Religion teaching viewing the fact that in sixteen years, in 1913, the name of P.M. Rufimsky can be found in the sources among the teachers names of Kazan boy's lyceum number 1, where the teachers' load was bigger than in the Institute.
The teaching load of the next catechist is very similar to the loads of other teachers.Such similarity can be the proof of the fact that for the positions of religion teachers the school and church authorities did not choose any free priests but they appointed talented and, consequently, engaged in different schools persons.The priest A.I. Druzhinin, a graduator of Kostroma Theology Seminary and Academy, was appointed a catechist of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute in August, 1 of 1897 (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/372, р. 4): in 1894 he obtained the degree of Theology Candidate, then he became a priest and then, in 1896 he became an associate professor of the Department of Pedagogics in Kazan Theology Academy (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan,150,1/955,. Holding this position he was appointed to the post of catechist in Kazan Teachers' Training Institute and the institute got an expert in the field of Pedagogics showing one more time that the authorities searched for qualified staff.The Director of the Institute of that time, who also made a historical description of the Institute, characterized him in the following way: "An expert of Pedagogics and an erudite person, A.I. Druzhinin was a wonderful tutor and educator for future school teachers (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/1, р.It is not the only example when we see obvious dissonance between catechists' appointment and their change of working place due to the career promotion: the authorities were very responsible and attentive in selecting the staff but the new appointment usually took place in the middle of academic year and the administration had to search for a new teacher.So, secular schools administration was more interested in high level teaching of God's Law than church administration: church authorities ignored the duties of priests in schools. Because of immediate move of V.P. Sokolsky from Kazan to Poltava, a catechist of Kazan Mariinsky school for girls S.K. Spirin started teaching God's Law in the Institute.His appointment was temporal and later a former village priest of Volyn Eparchy V. Poyarkov who graduated Kazan Theology Academy changed Spirin at the post.But starting on August, 1 of 1910 he worked for a short time and on October, 13 another priest, V. A. Smirnov, who worked in military school, replaced him (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/731, р. 21-33).In contrast with other above-mentioned teachers V. A. Smirnov became a catechist being about 60 years old while other teachers were young.He got rich experience in the fields of church and teaching.His service record shows the researchers interesting case from 'synod period' of Russian church history.A graduator of a church educational institution all his life he worked at different religion education institutions in provinces; he did not ordain a priest and worked as a secular person and in the frames of Charter of Ranks getting titles and awards.He considered being a good worker by his administration because of short intervals of getting new awards; that is why his status and position change is looking unusual.On January, 13 of 1909 the Protopresbyter signed the order on his appointment to the post of the catechist in Kazan Infantry Cadet School.At the age of 57, being an experienced official, V. Poyarkov got the position of Religion teacher in eparchy not connected with his previous career.
Interesting is the fact that V. Poyarkov should have come to Kazan being a priest and in this connection his ceremony of ordaining a priest took place on February, 15 of 1909.Arriving in Kazan in March of the same year and starting his work in Kazan Infantry Cadet School, in November of 1909 he was chosen a member of Kazan Theology School for women and started giving lectures.On September, 22 of 1910 he was appointed to the post of the priest in Ochakov Cathedral by the order of Protopresbyter.However he did not like the service of military priest because all his previous job was connected with religious education and on November, 19 of 1910 he was appointed to the post of the catechist in Kazan Teachers' Training Institute (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/876, р. 67-78).As we can see from "the Regulations for personnel of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute" (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan,150,1/955,рр. 74,141,147,152), V.A. Smirnov continued teaching Religion after the Great October Revolution in December of 1917.He ended teaching at the end of January -beginning of February when the Decree of Separation of Church and State was adopted.

The Process and the Results of the Experiment
The analysis of some catechists' biographies is showing that despite frequent ironic comments regarding the lyceum priests that we can read in the sources, most of the teachers were prominent personalities who had plenty of experience in teaching and management.Their high skills were confirmed by the degrees and publications they had (articles and monographs).Thus, we can see that secondary schools of Kazan School District were provided with high skills staff in the field of Religion teaching that was also caused by the fact that Kazan was one of largest centers of religious education in Russian Empire.
The high degree of responsibility and interest of Kazan School District administration (Church administration too) in qualified Religion Teachers in accordance with the time requirements and standards is obvious.But sometimes church and secular administrations came into a conflict that was provoked by bureaucracy misunderstanding.The funds of Kazan School District have many sources presenting such examples.
One of such conflicts was the one of the end of 1860 when the catechist of Mariinsky Girl's School (later it got the status of lyceum), N. Chronusov, missed the classes during a month and ignored his working duties.That is why M. Potechin, a priest of Kazan nunnery, was appointed to this position on February, 3 of 1868 by the Board of Trustees.The Board members asked the permission on February, 9 of the same year if the Eparchy administration, in the face of Archbishop Antony (Amphiteatrov), had any obstacles to appoint M. Potechin to this post (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 125, 1/113, р. 5).
As it was clarified later, Kazan consistory sent the letter to the Council of Mariinsky School on January, 30 where they informed that N. Chronusov, a priest of prison Trinity Church, by the order from January, 26, was appointed to the position of the second priest in Kazan Duchososhestvinskaya Church and dismissed from the position of a school catechist (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 125, 1/113, р. 6).But the letter was received on February, 13 only and that is why the administration could read it on February, 24 (the letter has marginal notes).
On February, 26 Mariinsky School got the respond letter from Archbishop Antony where he presented the Order N 1363 of the Synod from March, 7 of 1822.The order prohibited the priests of Kazan Devichy Monastery to hold any other positions.So the Archbishop did not have the right to agree for M. Potechin's appointment (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 125, 1/113, р. 9).
Unfortunately there was still misunderstanding.In a week a trustee of Kazan School District P.D. Shestakov sent an official letter to the Archbishop regarding the catechist dismissing: he presented the Lyceum Regulations of 1864 (item 25), which said the following: "catechists of lyceums and primary schools are appointed by the Heads of Schools after getting approval of local eparchy administration and then they are appointed to the post of trustee".He made the conclusion that a catechist can be dismissed by the same authorities.In his opinion Kazan consistory rushed to dismiss the catechist Chronusov without informing the Council, according the Regulations (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 125, 1/113, р. 16).This episode is illustrating the change of relationships between the church and the state in the field of education that took place in the period of "Great Reforms" while regulating the process of religion teaching in a secular school.Archbishop Antony was too experienced to make such a mistake which was noted by Trustee P.D. Shestakov (P.D. Shestakov was a religious person and did not suffer from anticlericalism).
Here we see the conflict between "the old" (traditional) and "the new" (liberal) views.Archbishop Antony was sure that any priest had to be appointed by the eparchy administration and considered their teaching as a part of a priest's duties.But 'the Lyceum Regulations' of 1864, regulating Religion teaching in secondary schools included catechists in the list of staff teachers who belonged to the category of public service officials and subordinated them to school administration (eparchy administration had the right for the approval only).Thus, priests could change their positions by the order of church administration but as school catechists they could change the positions by the order of Ministry of Education, in particular, by a trustee of a school district and a school administration.Above-mentioned changes, on the one hand, improved the status of catechist including him into a category of staff teachers but on the other hand they caused church-state bureaucracy conflicts both in explicit way (the case with a priest Chronusov) and in implicit way (when school administration had to search another catechist because the old one got another church position in the middle of academic year).
As a result the students of Mariinsky School did not have Religion classes for a few months because it was refused to appoint M. Potechin instead of N. Chronusov (referring to the Synod's Order).Unfortunately this fact has not been described in "Historical Notes" of Mariinsky School.In the list of the school catechists after the name of N. Chronusov we see the name of A. Yasnitsky (Smirnov, 1884;Traubenberg, 1900) without saying the word about the conflict situation described in unpublished sources.

Discussions
Beyond the problems connected with catechists' appointment, Kazan School District officials and the eparchy administration faced the conflict in the field of getting awards.It was natural that catechists got secular awards as teachers.It sounds ironically today but school administration awarded catechists letters of commendation, orders and other awards together with religious ones asking the permission of the Archbishop formally.In 1873 the Director of Kazan primary school asked the permission to reward P. Malov, the Abbot of Yevdoky Church with the pectoral cross the Head of school district instead of the eparchy administration that should 'approve' this permission » (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 92, 1/11026, р. 4-6).From official letters we can see that the School District Head had the right to permit the awarding.
Above-mentioned information shows how the state interfered in church management in time of Russian Empire.It could be seen at all levels: starting from the Synod and ending by a school.

Conclusions
The research and educational development of catechists of secular schools during the second half of 19 thbeginning of 20 th centuries shows that the authorities of education were interested in qualified Religion teaching in schools as well as the church tried to meet their requirements.The cited examples are proving that school catechists were mostly well-educated and broad-minded personalities who mastered high skills of theory and practice in the field of Religion teaching and it was one of the peculiarities of Kazan School District.Kazan was the center of School and simultaneously the Theology Educational District.The alumni of Kazan Theology Academy worked in schools of that time and they participated in discussions of early 20 th century regarding the reforming of school system in Russia.
That time catechists have to join the duties of a school teacher and a clergyman because only priests were allowed to teach God's Law.Moreover, church administration promoting priests career did not care of their work in schools often leaving the schools without Religion classes in the middle of academic year while school authorities were more responsible.
The officials' interest in Religion teaching was caused by the fact that God's Law was basic subject of school curricula.After the Great October Revolution in 1917, Religion classes stopped to be a part of a syllable and church lost its ability to influence the situation.
35).But in 1902 A.I. Druzhinin left the Institute because he got the title of a professor and started working in Kazan Theology Academy only.The five years tenure of this talented teacher at the Institute became an important history page of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute and shows how the school and district authorities tried to hire good professionals for Religion teaching in secular schools.Basing on A.I. Druzhinin's recommendation his position got the priest V.P. Sokolsky, who after graduating Kazan Theology Academy on August, 11 of 1902 was appointed to the post of a priest in Andreyev Church of Kazan Teachers' Training Institute.In August, 20 of the same year he started teaching Religion in the Institute (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/696, р. 80-81; 150, 1/577, р. 18).While working at the Institute in 1905 he got the degree of Theology Master for publishing the work "Evangelical Ideal of Christian pastor".Later he was appointed to the post of Inspector of Poltava Theology Academy and left Kazan Teachers' Training Institute (National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, 150, 1/696, р. 65-74).