Problems of Teaching the Law of God at the Beginning of the 20th Century (Based on Materials from Tserkovnye Vedomosti (1901–1910))

The law of God was the first among the compulsory subjects of any primary and secondary educational institution of the Russian Empire. Until the beginning of the 20th century, in official speeches and documents, we see reports of the beneficial effects of religious education. However, at the beginning of the 20th century there is a large number of statements about the need to reform or even exclude religious subjects from the school and make it completely independent of the Church. The church hierarchy, Orthodox journalists, scientists and educators had to defend and uphold the need to teach the Law of God in school from encroachment on the part of left-wing and liberal forces. The official publication on the pages of which the Russian Orthodox Church, through its official and unofficial representatives, defended its interests, was the Tserkovnye Vedomosti journal, published from 1888 to 1918. The article considers publications that reveal the problems of teaching the Law of God as the main tool of religious education in Russian schools, and also analyzes the solutions proposed by the authors of these publications.