Official Statistics and the Colleges for the Orthodox Clergy Daughters in the Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

The article has systematized and analyzed the digital indicators of the evolution of the eparchial women’s colleges, which existed in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the basis of the reports of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod. This made it possible to distinguish the main characteristics of the women’s education level, both secular and religious, as well as to go far beyond the study of the history of separate educational institutions of the spiritual ministry, to avoid a regional approach to the coverage of eparchial women’s education. The analysis of the digital indicators and the corresponding calculations gave the possibility to reveal the dynamics of the increase in the number of women’s colleges in eparchies throughout the country and the increase in the number of students in eparchial colleges. The general development of women’s religious education has shown that the Kyiv eparchy had the highest rates in this sphere. Furthermore, eparchial women’s colleges in Kyiv were more open to representatives of other social classes.