The Case Against Tikhon (May 1922–June 1923)

Abstract The Soviet government detained Patriarch Tikhon and supported a group of progressive clergy in seizing the ecclesiastical administration. The patriarch was held at the Donskoi Monastery for over a year and was subjected to repeated interrogations as the Soviets prepared a show trial against him. The Renovationists also held a council in which they defrocked the patriarch. When the impending trial was announced, there was an international backlash and immense pressure especially from the British government that led the Soviets to abandon the trial. In the end, a compromise solution was reached by which the Soviet authorities not only released him but allowed him to return to Church leadership, while the patriarch agreed to “repent” of anti-Soviet statements and declare that he was “not an enemy” of the Soviet government.