The Discipline of Historical Liturgics in Russia: From «Unhappy Step-daughter» to Full-fledged Scholarly Discipline

The birth of liturgical research in Russia is a phenomenon that deserves careful study. The development of liturgical studies took place mainly in the Theological (Spiritual) Academies of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv and Kazan. The publication of liturgical source materials was the first step towards the establishment of an independent scientific school of liturgical studies in Russia. Thanks to Nikolai Krasnoseltsev, Ivan Mansvetov, Alexei Dmitrievskij, Ivan Karabinov and other prominent liturgists, we have a number of outstanding treatises on the liturgy of the East and West, the Typicon, both of Greek and Russian liturgical traditions, the Sacramental rites and other orders grown out of use. At present, the considerable range of matters addressed in these studies is poorly recognized, although the hypotheses of Russian scholars and their gains in methodology anticipated some of the achievements of the liturgists in the second half of the 20th century.