What happened to the Church in 1917 and 1918?
In August 1917, shortly after the fall of the tsar, the Russian Church held a great Local Council in Moscow's Dormition Cathedral. It was the first such council in more than two centuries, and it restored the patriarchate, which Peter the Great had abolished in favour of a synod. In November 1917 the council chose Metropolitan Tikhon of Moscow, drawn from three candidates by lot, as Patriarch. The Bolsheviks had taken power days earlier. The Church thus entered the Soviet era with a new constitution and a leader who had served years as a bishop in North America (see St Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow).
In early 1918 the new government issued a decree separating church from state and school. It removed the Church's legal status and property rights, so parishes could no longer own their buildings and could use them only on loan from the state. Religious instruction of children in schools was banned, and the Church lost its charitable and educational institutions. Patriarch Tikhon protested publicly, and the Church began to experience the first violence of the revolution and civil war.
The new order saw religion as a prejudice to be removed. Christ's own words about being persecuted for righteousness (Matthew 5:10 listen in the Audio Bible) took on a literal meaning for many believers in these years.
How severe was the persecution in the 1920s and 1930s?
It was severe, and it came in waves. In 1922 the state began confiscating church valuables, officially to relieve famine, and resistance led to trials and executions. The same year the secret police backed a group of clergy called the Renovationists, or Living Church, who broke with Tikhon and received official favour; the schism lasted until the mid-1940s. Tikhon himself was kept under house arrest in the Donskoy Monastery from 1922 to 1923, and died on 7 April 1925. The authorities then prevented the election of a successor.
The leader who remained, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), issued a declaration in 1927 accepting the Soviet state's authority and pledging the Church's loyalty. Many believers saw this as a necessary step to keep parishes open, and others viewed it as a betrayal. The disagreement split the Church: those who rejected the declaration formed what is called the Catacomb Church, and the Russian Church Outside Russia also refused it. The argument involves how far the Church may cooperate with an unjust state, and there are echoes in the apostles' words that we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29 listen in the Audio Bible) set beside Paul's call to respect authority (Romans 13:1 listen in the Audio Bible).
The Great Terror of 1937-38 was the climax. Historians differ on the numbers, which are hard to establish, but they run to many tens of thousands of clergy, monks, nuns and lay believers shot or sent to camps. By 1939 the Church was almost destroyed: only a handful of bishops remained at liberty, and the number of functioning churches had fallen to at most a few hundred. Those killed or imprisoned for the faith are remembered as the new martyrs and confessors (see the new martyrs and confessors of Russia). The Book of Revelation's words to the faithful until death (Revelation 2:10 listen in the Audio Bible) are often quoted in their memory.
Why did Stalin change course in 1943?
Following the German invasion of June 1941, the state turned to every source of patriotism, and the Church answered the call, with Metropolitan Sergius publicly supporting the war effort. In German-occupied areas many churches were reopened, and the Soviet government saw advantages in not leaving the field to the occupiers. On 4 September 1943, Stalin received Metropolitans Sergius, Alexy and Nicholas, and on 8 September a council of bishops elected Sergius as Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
The arrangement was a concession with conditions. The state set up a Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church to supervise the Church, and local commissioners enforced the registration of parishes and clergy. Churches were allowed to reopen, seminaries and a few monasteries were permitted, and the Renovationist schism was dissolved. The Church could act publicly, but within limits set by the state and not through youth education, publishing or charity. Some scholars call this a pragmatic deal and others a controlled use of the Church, and both were true.
Between 1945 and the late 1950s the number of functioning churches rose to about 22,000-25,000 by different estimates, with around 33,000 priests. Through all of it the Church kept its liturgical life going (see the Divine Liturgy).
What was Khrushchev's campaign?
In 1958-64 the state returned to anti-religious pressure. Churches were closed in large numbers: the figure fell from roughly 22,000 to between 7,000 and 8,000 by the mid-1960s according to different sources, and the number of working monasteries fell to fewer than twenty. Seminaries were reduced and anti-religious propaganda was stepped up; a believer's career and education could suffer.
The Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church became a more controlling body, and in 1965 it was merged with the council for other religions into the Council for Religious Affairs, which gained legal supervisory powers in 1975. Its local commissioners had power over registration of priests, the opening of churches and the approval of parish officers. A priest who displeased a commissioner could be deregistered, which meant he could no longer serve. The system turned the Church's daily life into a negotiation with an official.
Through the years that followed, believers kept the faith in conditions of pressure. Many grandmothers brought children to be baptised, often quietly, and families kept icons at home. Numbers are hard to establish, but the Church did not vanish.
How did people keep the faith underground?
Faith was kept alive by people who were often unseen by the authorities and unknown to historians. Baptisms and funerals, which the state could not prevent, remained a frequent point of contact. Many people attended the great feasts, especially Pascha, in crowded churches. Prayer books, icons and copies of the Gospels were passed between families. Some clergy of the Catacomb Church served in secret.
There was also a more public witness. Some priests and laypeople wrote open letters protesting the closures and were imprisoned for it. Others accepted the compromises of the registered Church and tried to serve the faithful within the limits. It is important not to measure everyone by the standard of the martyrs. The Church remembers many kinds of faithfulness, and the judgment of any individual belongs to God.
Where the Church remained open, worship was the core of its survival. The hymns and readings of the liturgy carried the faith, and for many the Gospel heard in church was the only Scripture they had. Today, the same Gospels can be heard in the Audio Bible, including the Gospel of John, where Christ promises tribulation and victory together (John 16:33 listen in the Audio Bible), a text that comforted many in these years.
What changed from 1988 and what is the Church like now?
The year 1988 marked a thousand years since the baptism of Rus' under Prince Vladimir, and the state, in the era of Gorbachev's reforms, allowed public celebrations. At that point the Soviet Union had about 6,900 functioning churches and fewer than twenty-five monasteries. The millennium opened a rapid change: in 1988-90 churches and monasteries began to be returned to the Church, and religious education and charity became legal again. The law of 1990 on freedom of conscience confirmed this. In 1989 Patriarch Tikhon was glorified as a confessor, and in February 1992 his relics were found at the Donskoy Monastery.
The scale of the revival after 1991 is unusual in modern history. According to figures given in a standard reference work, about 15,000 churches were reopened or built during the patriarchate of Alexy II (1990-2008). Official statistics of the Moscow Patriarchate for 2016 list about 34,800 parishes and over 900 monasteries. These are church-reported numbers, and attendance is much smaller than nominal membership, but the contrast with 1939 is striking. Many restored monasteries now receive visitors (see what to expect on an Orthodox pilgrimage). In 2000 the bishops glorified the new martyrs on a large scale.
The revival has brought its own difficulties, including the relationship with the state, the nominal faith of many and unresolved questions about the Soviet past. For an earlier chapter of Church history see what the ecumenical councils were, and the church calendar lists the commemorations of the new martyrs. The main lesson is that the Church survived persecution without the support of any government, that many individuals showed courage, and that the full history is still being studied.
