The paper explores how the historical semantics of concepts could be studied using materials from Russian censorship documents. By using the methods of Cambridge Methodological School and Begriffsgeschichte school, the paper analyzes the archive cases of the highest censorship committee of the Russian Empire, the so-called “Committee of April 2, 1848” – the cases, focused on the examination of particular concepts. The second part of the paper examines the concepts applied to the censorship institution itself, specifically the categories of “secular and spiritual” in their relation to the binary opposition of secular vs religious. The author attempts to unpack the content of these concepts and puts forward a hypothesis that in the context of Russian historical sources, there should be a three-part division – secular / spiritual / religious.
Russian censorship; religious other; historical semantics; history of ideas; secular; spiritual; religious.