Slavic Greek Latin Academy - in The 19th Century and Modern Times

In The 19th Century and Modern Times

In the 19th century the Academy continued as the principal theological school of the Russian Orthodox Church. Among its professors were the famous historian Vasily Klyuchevsky and the Christian philosopher Pavel Florensky. Since 1892 the Academy has been publishing the most authoritative journal on Russian Orthodoxy - Bogoslovsky vestnik (formerly edited by Gorsky-Platonov and Pavel Florensky). In 1888 the Academy trained more than 300 theological students.

The Bolsheviks closed the Academy in Troitse-Sergieva Lavra in 1918. Some professors of the Academy (including its former rector Archbishop Theodore (Pozdeevsky), professors I.V. Popov and Pavel Florensky) moved to the informal Higher Theological School in Moscow, but there were only a few students left.

In September 1943, at the peak of the World War II, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met three metropolitans (Sergius, Alexis and Nicholas) of Russian Orthodox Church and established the new policy of cooperation with the Orthodox Church. He promised to formally recognize and reopen the Higher Theological School. The promised school was opened as the Theological Institute in the Novodevichy Convent on June 14, 1944. It was the first official theologian school allowed in the Soviet Union. The program was prepared by Gregory (Chukov), Archbishop of Saratov and its first rector was S.V. Savinsky.

In 1946 the Theological Institute was transformed into the Moscow Seminary and Moscow Theological Academy. In 1947 the Academy gained the right to award theological degrees of Candidate, Doctor and Professor. In 1949 the Moscow Theological Academy was allowed to reclaim its original buildings at the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, where they teach theological students to the present time. Most of the present bishops and theologians of Russian Orthodox Church have graduated from the Academy.