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In the early twentieth century, before the Bolsheviks' assumption of power, Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was the residence of over one thousand monks. It was one of the most famous centers of religious life in the Orthodox world, visited each year by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The monastery was renowned for the relics of many saintly monks who had been glorified in 1643 under Metr. Peter Mogila. This changed after the Soviets assumed control of the government in late 1917.
Changes by the Soviet authorities began in 1921. Initially, the authorities confiscated the [[relicrelics]]s and historical and artistic objects that belonged to the monastery. Buildings were converted to commercial and other uses. Many of the monastery's monuments were combined into a museum, the Lavra Museum of Religious Cults and Way of Life, that also contained collections from other museums in Kiev. After closing down the monastery completely in 1926, the Soviet government first turned the grounds into a museum preserve, the All-Ukrainian Museum Quarter, that consisted of a number of museums which emphasized anti-religious propaganda, and included archives, libraries, and workshops before closing the Quarter in 1934 and transferring the collections to new museums in Kiev. All the bells were removed by the Soviet authorities during the period 1931 to 1932.
During World War II (the Great Patriotic War) the Soviet army mined the Holy Dormition Cathedral before the advancing Nazi forces. The explosives were, then, detonated after the Nazi forces had occupied Kiev on [[November 3]], 1941 severely damaging the cathedral. After the war the lavra grounds were restored and renamed the Kievan Cave Historical-Cultural Preserve, which housed a number of museums and institutions. Also, a functioning monastery of about one hundred monks was allowed to operate until 1961.
