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Abstract:

The article deals with the story of I.G. Shadrin “Bursa” as a fictionalized evidence of the writer’s education in a theological seminary. Shadrin’s story belongs to “seminary testimonies” — a kind of genre category of works that were almost not in demand by readers, since they turned out to be completely understandable only to a very narrow group of people who were closely familiar with spiritual education. Seminar certificates almost did not take root in literature, but they contain quite valuable information in the form of historical and portrait sketches. The daily life of seminarians and provincial clergy, revolutionary and protest processes among students, personal impressions of communication with teachers and the administration of the seminary are restored from a fictional text with many details and details that were usually omitted in official documents and even in the memoirs of administrative officials. As a result of an analytical comparison of two editions of Shadrin’s story “Bursa” with evidence of the era, the author of the article draws parallels between the heroes of the story and real people, and indicates the prototypes of the characters. A feature of the story “Bursa” is the tendentious denial of all the good that could be associated with seminary life. Shadrin tries not to notice the positive phenomena of the theological school, although they nevertheless manifest themselves thanks to the artistic truthfulness of the author.