An Attempt To Establish the St. Petersburg Orthodox Church Brotherhood (1864–1865)

This article is the first publication related to the study of the history of the establishment of the Missionary Society in St. Petersburg (1865–1869). The author of the study begins with a wide context of the issue and restores the history of the failed establishment of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Church Brotherhood in 1864–1865, and also describes and briefly characterizes documents found in archives on this topic. In parallel, on the example of one of the reviews, stipulated is the clergy’s attitude to this project. Also, indicated is the connection of this event with the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. The peculiarity of this project was that the initiative came from secular intellectual circles of St. Petersburg. Many of the people involved in the project subsequently participated in the life of the Missionary Society. It was this attempt that became an important reason for the Regulation of the Committee of Ministers of May 8, 1865 on the opening of Church brotherhoods of a missionary-apologetic orientation in the western provinces. In conclusion, indicated is an attempt is made to identify the reasons for the failure of this project, and the further direction of work with the discovered documents.