The art collection of the Rusanov House Museum contains a photograph of young Vladimir Rusanov, a student of the theological seminary, taken at the very end of the 19th century in the photographic studio of B.B. Peyroli in Oryol.

Andrey Petrovich Sokolov, the second husband of Vladimir Rusanov’s mother, was a teacher of ancient languages ​​at the Oryol Theological Seminary. Fortunately, he was a true teacher — his student’s formal achievements were not as important for him as the personality that was still under development and was full of potential. This was how he probably perceived his stepson, and the latter accepted his stepfather with all the ardor of a young soul yearning for understanding, although the adaptation period took a long time. Sokolov had great patience — all the problems his stepson had in educational institutions directly influenced his career as a teacher.

The seminary was the last chance for the young Rusanov. He ended up in the seminary in 1891, not without his stepfather’s help, and got stuck for a long period of six years, spending two years on each course. Surprisingly, this long way of learning the subjects did not affect the relationship between the stepfather and stepson, although, probably, Sokolov had to listen to many bitter reproaches from his superiors regarding Vladimir’s study records. As an adult, Rusanov more than once spoke quite critically about that period of study. His own experience led him to believe that such an education fills the head with thousands of unnecessary things but cannot teach a person to work. Despite such critical judgments, Rusanov’s first works, written while he was in exile in Vologda, showed a high level of his education, including the subjects that he could have studied only in the process of self-education.

The Oryol Theological Seminary was a secondary educational institution of the Oryol diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, which trained clergy. The seminary existed from 1788 to 1918. In 1926, the Oryol Railway Technical School moved into the building of the seminary.