The Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery hosted the round table discussion on the “The 350th anniversary of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese: its history and the present.”

Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas presided at the conference.

Attending the round table discussion were Bishop Innocent of Sormovo, the Vicar of Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, Archimandrite Tikhon (Zatekin), abbot of the Ascension Caves monastery, Olga Baraeva, advisor to the head of Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, Mikhail Rychtik PhD in Political science, director of the Institute of International Relations and World History at the Nizhny Novgorod State University, Alexander Kornilov PhD Political Science, head of the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Local History of the Institute of International Relations and World History of Nizhny Novgorod State University, Andrey Kuznetsov PhD  History, adjunct professor of the department of culture and psychology of business, Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship of the Nizhny Novgorod State University, Natalia Makshantseva PhD Teaching Science, Director of the Russian Language Institute at the Dobrolyubov Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University, Elena Kalinkina Master of Teaching Science, provost of the Nizhny Novgorod Agricultural Academy, and other Nizhny Novgorod scientists – university instructors and history teachers of Orthodox schools.

At the beginning of the conference, Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas warmly greeted its participants and Professor Michael I. Rychtik presented the documentary film about the origin, formation and development of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.

The round table discussions continued with informative and engaging presentations by Archimandrite Tikhon (Zatekin), Alexander Kornilov, Andrei Kuznetsov and Alexander Sorokin. The topics discussed were “The 100th anniversary of Soviet government actions to remove church valuables,” “The Nizhny Novgorod elder Hegumen Isaiah (Budyukin): his ministry in the Gorky Diocese and spiritual admonition (1946-1978),” “The secret prose of N. I. Kochin written in his later years as a source of the history of the church in Gorky,” and “The clergy of Nizhniy Novgorod as deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Empire.” They brought about lively discussions about the importance of history education at the current stage of development of the Russian society and the direction of scientific research about the history of Russian Orthodox Church in Nizhniy Novgorod.