Kurganov Fedor

Kurganov Fedor (1844–1920) – Byzantine scholar, historian of the Church.

He was from a family of a countryside priest. He graduated from a theological school and the Penza Theological Seminary. In 1870 he graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy, having received Master's degree in Theology for his thesis: ‘The Administrative System of the Church of the Greek Kingdom’ (published in Kazan in 1872). From 1870 to 1885, he held the department of the Church history at the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1880, he got Doctor of Theology degree for his thesis ‘Relations Between Ecclesiastic and Civic Authorities in the Byzantine Empire. Review of the Era of Shaping and the Final Establishment of Certain Relationship Between Ecclesiastic and Civic Authorities in Byzantium (325‒565)’. Due to a conflict with the leadership of the Academy, he was transferred to the Kazan University in 1885. In 1910, he became Honored Ordinary Professor of the Kazan University and kept that position for the last 10 years of his life.

The main topic of his research was the relationship between civic and ecclesiastic authorities, mainly in the Byzantine Empire.

Compositions

The Administrative System of the Church of the Greek Kingdom. Kazan University, 1871.560 p.
Historical Sketch of the Greek-Bulgarian Strife // Pravoslavny sobesednik. 1873, January, February, May, June, July, October, November.
Relations Between Ecclesiastic and Civic Authorities in the Byzantine Empire. Review of the Era of Shaping and the Final Establishment of Certain Relationship Between Ecclesiastic and Civic Authorities in Byzantium (325‒565). Kazan, 1880. 720 p. (Faxim. Publ.: In Subsidia Byzantina: Lucis ope iterate. Vol. 15. Leipzig, 1983. Vorwort von H. D. Döpmann; republ.: St. Petersburg: O. Abyshko Publishing House, 2015. Introd. G.E. Lebedeva).
Pope Boniface VIII's Fight against French King Philip IV the Beautiful. To the History of the Origin of the So-called 70-year Babylonian Captivity and the Subsequent Great Schism in the Papacy. Speech by Ord. Prof. F. Kurganov at the Meeting at the Kazan Theological Academy. November 8, 1882 Kazan, 1882. 150 p.
Notes and Sketches from the Contemporary History of the Romanian Church: (To the History of the Deposition of the Romanian Primate Metropolitan Gennady Petresco). Kazan, 1899. 1048 p.
Emperor Constantine the Great. Speech on the Occasion of the 1600th Anniversary of Constantine. September 14, 1913. Kazan: Central typ.., 1913. 52 p.

About him

Lebedeva G.E. A Forgotten Chapter from the History of Russian Byzantine Studies. Vestnik of the St. Petersburg University. Series 2. Iss. 1. # 2. P. 3-14.
Sokolov I. F.A.Kurganov // Vizantiisky vremennik. Vol. XXIV (1923-1926). Leningrad, 1926. P. 103-104.
Zalivalova L.N., Lebedeva G.E. From the History of Russian Ecclesiastic History. F. Kurganov (1844 - 1920) // Historical Thought in Byzantium and in the Medieval West. Ivanovo, 1998. P. 181-204.