The monograph examines the lives of the sons of church ministers who chose secular spheres for their activities. Having left their class, they nevertheless preserved the traditions of their fathers in their moral principles and ideological views. The commonality of upbringing and education of the priests formed their self-awareness as a very homogeneous group of intelligentsia, opposed in their ethos to the noble intellectuals. Unlike the nobles, who were imbued with Western cultural norms of secular civilization, the Popovichs were confident in their role as leaders of the Russian people on the path to building heaven on earth; they were characterized by authoritarian thinking and the desire to subordinate personal interests to public ones. Behind the usual political groups of the Russian intelligentsia, Laurie Manchester discovers deeper collective identities and fault lines, when revolutionaries and monarchists often turn out to be kindred spirits. Table of contents: Introduction 7 Chapter 1 The origin of the priests: caricature and reality 27 Chapter 2 Secular classes in the assessments of the priests 65 Chapter 3 The Holy class 114 Chapter 4 Childhood as an earthly paradise 1 57Chapter 5Martyrdom at school 202Chapter 6Sacred exodus 254Chapter 7In search of salvation 292Chapter 8Biographies of Popovichs: the formation of modern identity 330Conclusion 377Appendix: Data on attributed autobiographical texts of Popovichs 386Sources and literature 398Name index 433