Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov

Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov (1885-1990)

and

Elena Valeryanovna Bogolepova (born Zapolskaya) (____-____)

Alexander may be spelt Alexandr, Alexandre, Aleksander, Aleksandr.

Elena may be spelt Yelena, Helen, Helene.

Early life of Alexander Alexandrovich

On 16/28 January, 1885, Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov was born in the village of Sreznevo, of the Rybnovsky County of the Ryazan Governorate, in the Russian Empire.

His father was the Priest Alexander Andreievich Bogolepov, and his mother was Matushka Olga Semenovna Bogolepova (born Cheltsova). His parents received from the Lord 8 children, and everyone received an excellent secular higher education, and they grew up in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The family name “Bogolepov" means "Divinely beautiful” (an approximate translation).

Higher education

As the eldest son of a priest, Alexander entered the Ryazan Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1906.

Former Ryazan Theological Seminary

He was offered the opportunity of entering the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. However, since he did not feel that he was being called to be a priest, and to the disappointment of his father, he entered instead the Imperial Saint Petersburg University.

Imperial Saint Petersburg University

There, he graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1910. His studies would have included Canon Law, as well as secular jurisprudence. He also graduated from the Faculties of History and Philology in 1911.

Teaching service begins

After he completed his studies, he was retained at the university, where he served as a “privat-docent” (assistant professor) until 1915. Then, from 1915 to 1917, he held the position of assistant to the legal adviser of the Ministry of Finance, and then of chief secretary in the First Department of the Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, he worked as a “docent” (assistant professor) in the University of Saint Petersburg in 1918, where he taught Law.

In 1921, he was elected by the University Senate to be a full Professor, and he was the last freely-elected vice-rector for science of Petrograd University until 1991.

Saint Petersburg State University

He lectured also at the PF Lesgaft courses, at the Bestuzhev Higher Women's Courses, and at the economics department of the Polytechnic Institute of Peter the Great (1915-1922).

Marriage, about 1922

In about 1922, Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov was married to Elena Valeryanovna Zapolskaya.

Arrest, condemnation, 1922

On 31 August, 1922, Professor Alexander Bogolepov was arrested. F E Dzerzhinsky, who personally interrogated those arrested, was inclined to think that they should be shot. However, after receiving the telegram of V I Lenin, it was decided to replace the penalty of death with that of expulsion abroad.

Expulsion, exile in Germany, and Czechoslovakia, 1922

Then, in November, 1922, he was expelled from Soviet Russia to Germany as one of a large group of eminent persons of science and art who were removed with their families on 2 “Philosopher Ships”. Those who were expelled included : I Yu Bakkal ; N A Berdyaev ; V F Bulgakov ; S N Bulgakov ; V V Zvorykin ; I A Ilyin ; L P Karsavin ; A A Kizevetter ; N A Kotlyarevsky ; D V Kuzmin-Karavayev ; I I Lapshin ; N O Lossky ; V A Myakotin ; M M Novikov ; M A Osorgin ; P A Sorokin ; S E Trubetskoy ; A I Ugrimov ; S L Frank ; N N Tsvetkov ; V I Yasinsky.

The only country that agreed to accept the exiles was the Weimar Republic of Germany.

On 30 August, 1923, Alexander and Elena received from the Lord a daughter, Elena Alexandrovna Bogolepova.

Russian Scientific Institute, Berlin

Once he was abroad, Alexander Alexandrovich worked as a professor, academic secretary and member of the board of the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin, Germany (1923-1934). It had been formed by professors expelled from Moscow and other cities, and he remained an active part of the board and of the institute until it was closed by the National Socialist government.

Russian Law Faculty, Prague

He also served as a member of the editorial board of the journal "Bulletin of Self-Education", and as a professor of administrative law of the Russian Law Faculty in Prague, Czechoslovakia (1924-1928). He travelled to Prague for a few days every month in order to lecture.

In addition to teaching, he took part in the Church life of Berlin, where unrest occurred at that time due to the formation of new jurisdictions. He kept himself carefully within the canonical-legal protection of the existing system under the authority of the Metropolitan of Paris.

In 1928, the exiled professors, with other Russian scientists and journalists, were invited by King Alexander I of Serbia and Yugoslavia to Belgrade for a conference. A A Bogolepov was the chairman of this conference.

In early 1930, negotiations began regarding the inclusion of the Russian Scientific Institute in the University of Berlin. However, all this came to a halt in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power.

Deprivation of work, 1934

In 1934, the Russian Scientific Institute was closed, and its library was confiscated by the National Socialist German Workers' Party of Mr. A Hitler. Professor Bogolepov lost the opportunity to work.

Support of Mrs E V Bogolepova

His wife Elena V Bogolepova took up the responsibility of making an income for the family. A woman of aristocratic descent who graduated from the Smolny Institute in Saint Petersburg, Elena Valeryanovna entered the course of cutting and sewing, and she opened a workshop. Then Alexander Alexandrovich began to give private lessons in the Russian language.

Smolny Institute

Help from Lutherans

During these years, in the city of Lemgo, a city to the west of Hanover, the Lutheran pastors organised the Russian Fraternal Assistance to Russian Émigrés. They gave scholarships to their children. The collection of money was carried out through the trips of Russian choirs to the Lutheran churches of Germany. Choirs gave concerts, mainly of ecclesiastical hymns, and A Bogolepov lectured in German. At that time, he began to study the lyrics of Orthodox Church hymns.

World War II (1939-1945)

In 1939, World War II began when the National Socialist Government of Germany invaded its neighbouring countries.

In 1941, the Gestapo compelled Alexander Alexandrovich to sign a paper and to begin teaching Russian at the Institute of Foreign Languages of the University of Berlin.

From the middle of 1943, the air-raids on Berlin by the Allied Powers intensified.

By the end of 1944, the Soviet Army was advancing rapidly, and it began to threaten the city.

Further move to the west, 1945

After encountering major complications, the Bogolepov family left Berlin. The family included Alexander, his wife Elena, their daughter Elena and her husband Oleg Pushchin (an engineer and a builder). They left behind them everything that they had acquired. This move was made just before the Battle of Berlin and the arrival in the city of the Red Army from the east.

Lemgo

On 30 March, 1945, the family arrived in the city of Lemgo, and already on 4 April, 1945, the city was taken by the Americans. The family subsisted on the earnings of their daughter, who worked as a translator in the English, French, German and Russian languages. In the spring of 1946, the family moved to Gauting near Munich in Bavaria. There, Alexander Alexandrovich found work at the Institute of Languages, where he taught Russian. By this time, this whole region had been occupied by the Allied Armies ; and later, it became West Germany.

Move to the USA, 1951 : teaching at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary

In early 1951, Alexander Bogolepov moved to the USA together with his family.

Upon his arrival in New York City, Alexander Alexandrovich took up the writing of an anthology of Russian poetry from Zhukovsky to Bunin. The book was completed by September, 1951. Both his wife and his daughter began to gain income through teaching the Russian language, and through serving as translators.

In September, 1951, Alexander A Bogolepov was appointed to serve as the Professor of Canon Law at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America (ROGCCNA). At that time, Saint Vladimir's Seminary was subsisting in a group of apartments associated with the Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University (at 537 West 121st Street, New York 27, NY (at Broadway), in the Morningside Neighbourhood).

He also taught the Church Slavonic and Russian languages. In addition, he taught similar subjects at Holy Trinity Theological Seminary in Jordanville, New York.

By this time, he was 65 years of age. This opportunity revived him spiritually and physically. He then overcome successfully a difficult obstacle : teaching in English. Two years later, he himself wrote his lectures in English without assistance.

He then began to publish articles on ecclesiastical and legal topics. He wrote a book about the situation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union, as well as articles about administrative law concerns in pre-revolutionary Russia.

In the USA, Alexander Alexandrovich participated actively in the affairs of the ROGCCNA, the predecessor of The Orthodox Church in America.

Bereavement, 1956

In 1956, the beloved wife of Alexander A Bogolepov, Yelena Valerianovna Zapolskya Bogolepova, fell asleep in the Lord.

After the serving of the Service for the Burial of a Lay-person, her body was taken to the cemetery of the Holy Dormition Women's Novodiveevo Monastery in Nanuet, Rockland County, New York., where it was interred.

Grave-marker

Formation of the Russian Academic Group

In 1957, having accepted American citizenship, he began to organise the Russian Academic Group in the USA and he became its first chairman, in which responsibility he continued until 1970.

Saint Vladimir's Seminary Faculty, 1958

In 1963 he published a book in English, “Toward an American Orthodox Church : the Establishment of an Autocephalous Orthodox Church”, in which he set forth the correct legal and canonical path towards the autocephaly of the Church in North America.

Saint Vladimir's Seminary, 1960s

Autocephaly : The Orthodox Church in America, 1970

On 31 March, 1970, the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America (ROGCCNA) received a Tomos of Autocephaly from the Moscow Patriarchate, and it became The Orthodox Church in America (OCA).

In 1970, Professor Alexander A Bogolepov was awarded the title of “Honoured Professor of Canon Law”.

Saint Vladimir's Seminary faculty, 1970s

Professor A A Bogolepov is the second person from the left, seated.

Retirement, 1971

In 1971, at the age of 85, Professor Alexander A Bogolepov discontinued his lectures about Canon Law at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary.

During his 20 years of teaching at Saint Vladimir's Seminary, Professor Alexander Bogolepov taught the Canadian students who could afford to attend the seminary at that time.

In 1972, the Orthodox Theological Institute of Saint Sergius in Paris, France, awarded Alexander A Bogolepov the degree Doctor of Theology, “honoris causa”.

In 1975, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary awarded Alexander A Bogolepov the degree Doctor of Theology “honoris causa”, with particular recognition of his 20 years of teaching and work at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary.

In 1976, the 90th anniversary of the birth of Professor Alexander A Bogolepov was solemnly celebrated. The occasion was marked by the participation of Metropolitan Ireney (Bekish) of New York and All America, and of all the professors of the seminary. During the service and other singing, he sang in the students' choir. There were speeches, and Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov gave his last public speech at that time.

Father Schmemann, Professor Bogolepov

Repose, 1980

On 31 August, 1980, Professor Alexander A Bogolepov reposed in the Lord.

The Funeral Service for the Burial of a Lay-person was offered at the Temple of the Kazan Icon of the Theotokos in Sea Cliff, Long Island, New York. This and other services were led by Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor), together with the Protopresbyter Father Alexander Schmemann, and the Archpriests Alexander Warnicke, Cyril Fotiev and Leonid Kishkovsky. The choir of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary sang.

After the funeral services were completed, his body was interred next to that of his wife in the cemetery of the Dormition Women's Novodiveevo Monastery in Nanuet, Rockland County, New York.

Grave-marker

Reflections

In his homily, Father Alexander Schmemann noted that in old Russia, there existed the so-called “service class” ; and it seemed to him that Alexander Alexandrovich was one of the last representatives of this “class”, who remained unshakable until the end of his life, and who was one of the pillars of the Orthodox Church in America.

At the time just before his repose, Professor Alexander A Bogolepov was the last of the intelligentsia exiles of 1922 to remain alive.

Professor Bogolepov’s daughter, Elena Alexandrovna Puschin, reposed in the Lord on 25 September, 2001. She had become a Doctor of Philosophy, and in retirement she bore the title “Professor Emeritus”. Her husband, Oleg Puschin, an engineer, reposed in the Lord sometime later. After their repose, they were each interred in the Novodiveevo Monastery Cemetery in Nanuet, Rockland County, New York.

Some words from the In Memoriam article by Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann about Professor Bogolepov :

 For all of us at St. Vladimir’s, Alexander Bogolepov was a living link with the 
 traditions and the spirit of the pre-revolutionary Russian academic world.  
 His sense of duty, his total dedication to his academic vocation and his 
 exquisite politeness all contributed to creating at the Seminary a climate of 
 mutual respect and co-operation.  For him, everything pertaining to 
 teaching was not only important but sacred, and the Seminary was not an 
 ivory tower but, above everything else, a way of serving the Church. 
 
 As a member of the Canonical Commission he played an important role in 
 the preparation of the Church Statutes adopted by the All-American Sobor 
 in 1955.  His book 'Toward an American Orthodox Church' had an 
 important impact on the long and difficult process that led to the 
 establishment of the Orthodox Church in America.  He also wrote on the 
 liturgical life of the Church and the Orthodox canonical tradition.  While in 
 retirement, as Professor emeritus , he remained in close contact with the 
 Seminary, interested in all the details and the progress of the school to 
 which he contributed so much of his work, his heart and his vision.

Writings

Printing of his writings began in 1912 (in Russian). His articles have been published in many magazines. Separate editions were printed.

• “Orthodox Hymns of Christmas, Passion and Easter” (Tallinn, 1934).

• “Church under the Rule of Communism” (Munich, 1958).

• “Christmas, Passion and Easter in Orthodox Worship” (New York, 1973).

• “Toward an American Orthodox Church : the Establishment of an Autocephalous Orthodox Church” (New York : Morehouse-Barlow Company, 1963).

• “M M Kovalevsky, as a Historian of political Thought” (Saint Petersburg, 1916).

• “Church Reforms in Russia, 1905-1918” (Bridgeport, CT : Metropolitan Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of America, 1966).

Archive, personal fonds in the Saint Petersburg State University : (translated from Russian)

• TsGIA St Petersburg F.14, Op. 3, D. 45942. Bogolepov Alexander Alexandrovich. TsGIA St. Petersburg F.14, Op. 3, D. 14550. Bogolepov A A – “On the extension of the remaining and approval for the master's exam”. TsGIA St Petersburg F.14, Op. 1, D. 10527. Bogolepov Alexander Alexandrovich – “On leaving him at the University of the Department of Public Law”.

• "Network biographical dictionary of historians of St Petersburg University (18th-20th centuries)" (St Petersburg, 2012)

Ed. College : Prof. A Yu Dvornichenko (project manager, responsible ed.), Prof. R Sh Ganelin, Assoc. T N Zhukovskaya, Assoc. E A Rostovtsev / responsible ed., Assoc. I L Tikhonov.

Authors : A A Amosova, V V Andreeva, D A Barinov, A Y . Dvornichenko, T N Zhukovskaya, I P Potekhina, E A Rostovtovtsev, I V Sidorchuk, A V Sirenov, D A Sosnitsky, I L Tikhonov, A K Shaginyan and others

• "Network biographical dictionary of professors and teachers of St Petersburg University (1819-1917)" (St Petersburg, 2012)

Ed. College : Prof. R Sh Ganelin (project manager), Prof. A Yu Dvornichenko / responsible ed., Assoc. T N Zhukovskaya, Assoc. E A Rostovtsev / responsible ed., Assoc. I L Tikhonov.

Authors : A A Amosova, V V Andreeva, D A Barinov, Yu I Basilov, A B Bogomolov, A Yu Dvornichenko, T N Zhukovskaya, A L Corzinin, E E Kudryavtseva, S S Migunov, I A Polyakov, I P Potekhin, E A Rostovtsev, A A Rubtsov, I V Sidorchuk, A V Sirenov, D A Sosnitsky, I L Tikhonov, A K Shaginyan, V O Shishov, N A Sheremetov and others.

• "Petersburg Historical School (18th - early 20th centuries) : information resource" (St Petersburg, 2016)

Ed. College : T N Zhukovskaya, A Yu Dvornichenko (project manager, responsible ed.), E A Rostovtsev (otv. ed.), I L Tikhonov

Authors : D A Barinov, A Yu Dvornichenko, T N Zhukovskaya, I P Potekhina, E A Rostovtovtsev, I V Sidorchuk, D A Sosnitsky, I L Tikhonov and others.

Writings by various authors about A A Bogolepov :

• ‘A A Bogolepov : A Bibliography’ in “Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly”, vol. 25, no. 3 (1981), pp. 9-11.

• Schmemann A, ‘Jubilee of Prof. A A Bogolepov’ in “Russko-Amerikanskii Pravoslavnyi Vestnik” [“Russian-American Orthodox Herald”], no. 2 (1956), pp. 35-36.

• ......, ‘Roll of Honor’ in “Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly”), vol. 10, no. 1/2 (1966), pp. 7-8.

• ......, ‘In Memoriam : A A Bogolepov’ in “Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly”, vol. 25, no. 3 (1981), p. 146.

• Troubetskoy, S, ‘In memory of Prof. A A Bogolepov’ in “New Russian Word” (New York, 13 September, 1980).

• ......, ‘In Memory of Prof. A. A. Bogolepov’ in “Russian Thought” (New York, October 16, 1980).

• ‘A A Bogolepov’ in “Orthodox Encyclopedia”

• Sukharev Yu N, “Materials for the History of Russian Science Abroad” (Moscow, 2002), pp. 58-59.

• Aleksandrov, E A, “Russians in North America: Biographical Dictionary” (Hamden, San Francisco, Saint Petersburg, 2005), pp. 64-65.

• “Expulsion instead of Execution : Deportation of the Intelligentsia in the Documents of the Cheka-GPU 1921-1923” (Moscow, 2005), pp. 142, 175, 197, 425.

• Schmemann A, Protopresbyter, “Diaries : 1973-1983” (2005), pp. 662-717.

• Nivier A, “Orthodox Clergy, Theologians and Church Leaders of the Russian Emigration in Western and Central Europe, 1920-1995 : Biographical Directory” (Moscow, 2007), pp. 100-101.

• “Russians abroad in France, 1919–2000 : Biographical Dictionary”, vol. 1 (Moscow, 2008), p. 183.

• Ulyankina, T I, “The ‘Wild Historical Band’ : The Fate of Russian Scientific Immigration in Europe (1940-1950)” (Moscow, 2010), pp. 363-364.

• Sorokina, M Yu, ‘Russian Science Abroad : Materials for the Biobibliographic Dictionary’ in “Pilot Issue 4 : Legal Science, 19th Century to the first half of the 20th Century” (Moscow, 2011), pp. 24-25.

References

Sokolov, Archpriest Victor, ‘Bogolepov’ in “Orthodox Encyclopedia” (Church-Scientific Center, 2002). ISBN 5-89572-010-2 .

Russian Wikipedia biography (in Russian)

Russian Wikipedia biography (in English)

Wikipedia article about A A Bogolepov

Russianemigrant.ru biography

Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Yearbook, 1962

Additional information :

Schmemann, Alexander, In Memoriam : Alexander A Bogolepov.

Findagrave reference for Alexandre A Bogolepov.

Findagrave reference for Yelena Valerianovna Zapolskya Bogolepova.

Orthodoxwiki article about the Russian Orthodox Church

Orthodoxwiki article about The Orthodox Church in America

Orthodoxwiki article about Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

History of Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich)

Metropolitan Ireney (Bekish)

Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor)

Protopresbyter Father Alexander Schmemann

Protopresbyter John Meyendorff

Protopresbyter Daniel Hubiak

Protopresbyter Leonid Kishkovsky

Professor Sergei S Verhovskoy

Sophia Koulomzine

Professor Nicholas S Arseniev

Nicholas Ozerov

Sergei G Troubetzkoy

“Great Times give Birth to great People : Professor Alexander Alexandrovich Bogolepov”. (Several 2013 articles about A A Bogolepov)

Wikipedia article about the “Philosophers’ Ships”

YMCA silent films from 1920s-1930s about the Institut Saint-Serge de Paris, and the RSCM Summer Camp (posted by John Sanidopoulos)

Findagrave reference for Oleg and Elena Puschin

Novodiveevo Women's Monastery

Orthodoxwiki article about Sea Cliff, New York

Church of Our Lady of Kazan, Sea Cliff, New York

Saint Vladimir's Seminary In Memoriam, on the 45th anniversary of the repose of Professor Bogolepov (31 August, 2025)