Generation as a Factor in Institutional Dynamics: The Case of Kyiv Theological Seminary (1947–1960)

Abstract

The article analyzes the Kyiv Theological Seminary between 1947 and 1960 as a generationally structured institution. The research aims to reconstruct the internal social dynamics of the faculty and to determine how generational belonging shaped educational, career and administrative practices during the late Stalinist and Khrushchev periods. The methodological framework is based on an adapted version of William Strauss and Neil Howe’s Generational Theory, applied to the analysis of a specific ecclesiastical institution. A prosopographical approach was employed, utilizing "vertical" biographical indicators: year of birth, educational trajectories, timing of ordination and experiences of political repression and World War II. The empirical basis consists of archival materials from the commissioners of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, publications of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, biographical databases and memoir evidence. As a result of the study, four generational cohorts of KTS instructors were identified, each formed under different historical regimes: Imperial, Revolutionary, Stalinist and Post-war. The research proves that the dominance of the "Imperial Clerical Generation" ensured the continuity of tradition, while younger generations facilitated adaptation and gradual transformation. The shift in the balance of generational influence on the pedagogical and administrative processes throughout 1947–1960 is thoroughly analyzed. In the conclusions, it is argued that the Kyiv Theological Seminary emerged as an institution of generational compromise, whose internal logic cannot be reduced to a passive reaction to state policy. Generational asymmetry defined the mechanisms of continuity, adaptation and the incomplete transformation of theological education in the USSR, opening new perspectives for the social history of the Orthodox Church.