Kazan Spiritual Academy to Expand Because ‘Russian Orthodox Church Needs Specialists on Islam,’ Its Rector Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 2 – The Kazan Spiritual Academy is expanding to include a doctoral program because the Russian Orthodox Church needs “specialists on Islam” to work with and potentially convert Muslims living in the Russian Federation, according to Nikita Kuznetsov, the academy’s rector.

            By so doing – and Kuznetsov’s efforts which enjoy Moscow’s approval are described at ng.ru/ng_religii/2026-02-02/9_611_academy.html – appears set to reclaim the role that Kazan played in the 19^th century when Turcologist Nikolay Ilminsky oversaw translations of the Bible and other efforts to bring Orthodoxy to the Muslim peoples of the Russian Empire.

(On Ilminsky’s activities and the continuing influence they have had in the thinking nof the Moscow Patriarchate’s thinking, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/04/moscow-patriarchate-reviving-ilminsky.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/01/russian-orthodox-church-wants-to.html.)

In his interview with an NG-Religii journalist, Kuznetsov did not say that the expansion of the academy is a harbinger of a major new push to convert Muslims; but it is likely to be the case that at least some of the graduates of his institution will be involved with such an effort, a move that could unsettle relations between Christianity and Islam in the Middle Volga.