Publication: “He has been able to light the oil lamp of knowledge before the altar of eternal truth in modern educational institutions”. Documents on the history of the development of teological sciences at Leningrad Teological Academy during the first years following its reopening (edited, with introduction and comments by Dmitry Karpuk)

A graduate of St. Petersburg Teological Academy before the Revolution, Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov) of Leningrad and Novgorod, bears much responsibility for the reopening of Leningrad Teological Academy in 1946. Tanks to his titanic labors, the theological academy in Russia's Northern Capital could not only be reopened, but also could become one of the leading institutions of higher learning in Orthodoxy. Te initial tasks before Metropolitan Gregory and the Academy's leadership included questions of hiring, the development of course programs and completely new courses, and carrying out the necessary repairs to the Academy's facilities. But despite the difficult conditions, the ruling bishop and professors and instructors of the Academy were involved in another important task: theological scholarship. Te many surviving documents testify to the fact that even during the first years following the Academy's reopening, its professors had ambitious plans for new research projects. We publish some of these plans here, based on decisions taken by the Academy's Academic Council and reflected in a very interesting source for the study of the Academy's history: the minutes of the meetings of the Academic Council of Leningrad Teological Academy (Archives of St. Petersburg Teological Academy, f. 1. file 1. units 1-4)