Emergence of the Russian Public Education System in the Patriarchal Era (1593-1721)

The paper explores the complicated path the emerging public education system took in the patriarchate period spanning from 1593 to 1721. It focuses on efforts to establish educational institutions in Russia and the role of the Orthodox Church as a protector of its flock from foreign religious influence. The materials used include works on the history of the public education system, created in Pre-Petrine Russia. The methodology of the research was based on the principles of historicism, system analysis and objectivity. With the scarce number of sources, we also widely utilized the descriptive method to rebuild as a complete picture of events as possible to show how the public education system evolved in Russia in the period from 1593 to 1721. As a summary, the authors point out that the emergence of public education in Russia's patriarchal period had distinctive features. According to the authors, these comprise attempts by the Orthodox Church to pioneer its own way in matters related to the preservation of the old world order. Maneuvering their way between Greeks and Latins, first centers of religious education in Russia suffered considerable harm, and the controversies caused the expulsion of the Likhud brothers from Moscow. In addition, as early as at the end of the patriarchal period, attempts were made to confer powers of a medieval inquisition on the Moscow Academy to combat dissent in the theological community.