Christian reading: toward the history of the journal's publication in 1914-1917

The article is devoted to the history of the publication of the journal Khristianskoye Chteniye (Christian Reading) in the last period of its existence - in 1914-1917. The author examines the financial state of affairs in the journal, discusses the reasons for the decline in its circulation, addresses the most important publications and their authors. The article shows that the journal remained a purely academic publication, practically not responding to topical social and political issues. Even the outbreak of the First World War did not affect the publishing program, which the editorial staff of Khristianskoye Chteniye adhered to until 1914. The high level of publications distinguished the journal during all the years of publication, its quality remained unchanged until the last issue, which was published after the Bolsheviks came to power. According to the author, the journal Khristianskoye Chteniye shows that genuine scholarship cannot and should not be “ideological”, that honest engagement in science is a guarantee of professional success and the only opportunity to maintain a professional reputation, exposing the viciousness of the well-known phrase of M. N. Pokrovsky, who argued that history is politics turned to the past.