Diplomatic Academy honors traditions of Katkovsky Lyceum

16 Nov in 16:15 By Vestnik Kavkaza

The Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia hosted a scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 200th birth anniversary of Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov - an eminent publicist, public figure, publisher, literary critic and teacher.

“The fact that this event hosted by the Diplomatic Academy is not accidental. Mikhail Nikiforovich built this building, created here one of the best educational institutions of the Russian Empire, and headed it for many years,” the rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yevgeny Bazhanov, said.

Russian Bulletin edited by Katkov was one of the leading literary and socio-political magazines of the second half of the 19th century, where the works of Lev Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Fet, Tyutchev and many others were published for the first time.

The conference was co-organized by the Alekseevsky Stavropegial Convent

"Mikhail Katkov and his wife were buried on the cemetery, on the territory of which the current Alekseevsky Stavropegial Convent is located. Unfortunately, during the Soviet totalitarianism and atheistic ideology domination, in the 1930s, the cemetery was completely destroyed, although many prominent figures of Russian culture and Russian history were buried there. The monastery is now trying to restore their memory, and in particular, the memory of Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov ", the editor-in-chief of Nashe Naslediye magazine, Alexey Saveliev, said.

Mikhail Katkov was an editor of the Moscow Gazette for a long time. He is claimed to be the founder of Russian political journalism. “Katkov, without exaggeration, can be called a dominant influence of several generations. For more than 30 years he stood on the captain’s bridge of the Moscow Gazette, carried his watch, being the mouthpiece of the Russian autocracy,” Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov said.

The Lyceum, named after the eldest son of Alexander II, who suddenly passed away, was one of the centers of public education and training of well-educated and patriotically brought up youth.

The head of the Center for Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis], Professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Natalya Maslakova-Klauberg remarked: “The Diplomatic Academy can boast of its students, but we forget who were graduates of the Katkovsky Lyceum in general. Many members of the State Council, in particular, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, Andreevsky, Chief-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod Volozhin, chairman of the Second State Duma Golovin, artist Grabar, historian Bakhrushin, future patriarch Alexy I studied in the Katkovsky Lyceum".