Serbia at the forefront of the Orthodox world

The Metropolitan of Belgorod and Stary Oskol Ioann, Rector of Belgorod State University Oleg Polukhin and Executive Secretary of the National Committee of Byzantine Studies Michael Gratsiansky (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) participated in the “Byzantine Club” meeting via videoconferencing. The meeting was chaired by the coordinator of the club, Professor of General History Department Nikolai Bolgov, and included the discussion the relations development between the state and the church, preservation of the Orthodox integrity as in the case of Serbia.

Dr. Dragoljub Marjanovic, Doctor of History, Professor of Byzantine History at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade (Serbia), made the keynote report. The leading Byzantine scholar of Serbia presented the main periods of the country's history in the context of Orthodoxy, accompanied by informative illustrations.

The Byzantine period of Serbia’s history and the country’s Byzantine monuments were presented by the teaching assistant of BelSU General History Department, candidate of historical sciences Maria Rudneva.

Summing up the conference results, Rector Oleg Polukhin underlined the importance of the topic for historical consciousness, understanding of the national civilization tradition and reported on the support of Byzantine studies at the university, including a broad educational aspect as part of the “Priority – 2030” Programme.

The club conference brought together over 50 participants – BelSU scientists making research in the field of classical and Byzantine tradition, lecturers and students of the Department of History and Philology of BelSU Pedagogical Institute and Institute of Social Sciences and Mass Communications.