Circumstances of censorship and publication of Opyt apologeticheskogo izlozheniia pravoslavno-khristianskogo veroucheniia by archpriest Pavel Svetlov

Based on the preserved archival file (Russian State Historical Archive. Coll. 796. Inventory 175. File 3126, “The Report of the St. Petersburg Theological Censorship Committee on Permission to Print the Manuscript of the Priest P. Svetlov”), the history of the censorship and publication of the first and second volumes of Opyt apologeticheskogo izlozheniia pravoslavno-khristianskogo veroucheniia ( An Attempt of an Apologetic Presentation of the Orthodox Christian Doctrine ) by the priest, later Archpriest Pavel Svetlov, is reviewed. From the materials of the case it is clear that the first volume of his manuscript was subjected to the most careful censorship by the highest church authorities. This volume was reviewed by a member of the St. Petersburg Theological Censorship Committee, Archimandrite Vasily, as well as by a member of the Study Committee at the Holy Synod, Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, and by the Archbishop of Novgorod, later Metropolitan Feognost (Lebedev) of Kiev. It was the opinion of the bishop that became the most important in the matter of authorizing the manuscript for publication. An analysis of the reviews preserved in the archives allows us to find out, on the one hand, what the theological censorship paid attention to when checking theological writings, and on the other, what the author of the work was ready to reject, and what, on the contrary, was ready to actively defend and defend in every possible way.