Academic Periodical

The article considers the course of the discussions on the possibility of reviving Orthodox brotherhoods in Russia, launched on the pages of ecclesiastical and secular newspapers and magazines in 1860 s. The author analyses the articles in the periodicals “Dukh Khristianina” (“The Spirit of the Christian”), “Kiyevskiye Eparkhialniye Vedomosti” (“Kiev Diocesan Journal”), “Den`” (“The Day”) as well as the publications by M.O.Koyalovich, N.S.Leskov, Archpriest Theophanes Lebedintsev, Priest Alexander Gumilevsky. The author highlights the major points of discussion in the first post-reform years, such as the history of brotherhoods in the South-Western Russia, the prospects of reviving brotherhoods within the Synodal system, brotherhoods as church unions and public organisations.