I?8 RUSSIAN CULTURE: RELIGION

the reactionary majority of the hierarchs of those days, and de-
manded that the church be purified of every reactionary element,
as only then could the new Council carry out the desired reforms,
Notwithstanding the separation of church and state, the govern-
ment, in Lvov's opinion, was obliged to take an active part in the
purge, since the church and more particularly the parish councils
served as a last refuge for its reactionary antagonists. Thus did
Lvov anticipate the procedure later decided upon by the Congress
of August 6, 1922.

It was obvious that the Living Church, in alliance with the gov-
ernment, was bent upon the complete destruction of the Tikhonian
Orthodox church. In order to strike at the very root of the church
organization, the newly created Supreme Church Administration
sent fifty-six delegates to the dioceses, investing them with un-
limited power and promising full support from the Soviet author-
ities, including the GPU. They were to "select in all dioceses from
the mass of the Orthodox church people the adherents to their
ideas, to organize them, and then entrust to them the charge of local
church administration." Organizations that were not registered
were proclaimed closed by the decree of August 10, 1922. This sud-
denly severed all connection between local religious groups and the
central church administration, which had been deprived of legal
existence. At first, when the emissaries of the Supreme Church
Administration arrived at their destination, they declared them-
selves agents of the Patriarch, winning over thereby several bishops
aad a large number of the clergy; but soon the deceit was dis-
covered, Metropolitan Agathangel strove to preserve the existence
ol the dioceses by acknowledging them "autocephalous" and pro-
posing to organize meetings of the faithful. "Notwithstanding the
extreme vigilance of the GPU," as the Izvestia admitted on Au-
gust 28, 1922, **a series of secret meetings of the faithful were held in
Vladimir, Kursk, Riazan, Perm, and other cities, and everywhere
k was resolved to disavow the Supreme Church Administration
and support Patriarch Tikhon."

After this the laving Church resorted to compulsory measures.
Ftaograd Diocesan Executive Committee decreed that all
who had repudiated the Supreme Church Administra-

tion should be dismissed, Qa December 13, 1922, seventy-four