Mentors, Students and Graduates of the Petrograd Theological Schools on the Battlefields of the First World War

The article attempts to collect information about all graduates, students and mentors of St. Petersburg (Petrograd) theological schools (academies and seminaries, which were separate educational institutions in the pre-revolutionary period), who took part in one form or another in hostilities during the First World War. Now, it was possible to identify information about 127 personalities. The information was obtained from the periodical press (“Tserkovnyy vestnik”, “Izvestiya po Petrogradskoy yeparkhii”, “Vestnik voyennogo i morskogo dukhovenstva”, etc.), memoirs, various kinds of reports and “Memorial Books”, as well as modern studies. The feat of students, graduates and mentors of the Petrograd Theological Schools during the war was different, their fates in the tragic 20th century were different: some died on the battlefields — in a battle with a cross in their hands, someone returned to Petrograd and completed training in Theological Academy, some became martyrs and confessors during the years of persecution, others became active participants in the White movement and then ended up in exile, some took an active part in the spiritual and cultural life of the country, the fate of many of them is unknown. Further research involves the involvement and active use of archival (unpublished) sources.