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After the [[w:October_Revolution|Bolshevik Revolution]] he was arrested several times and in 1922 exiled to Kazakhstan. In 1926 he returned to Leningrad and was appointed [[Archbishop]] of Khutyn, that is, the vicar of the Novgorodian [[diocese]]. He ran the diocese for much of the next seven years while [[Metropolitan]] [[Arsenius (Stadnitsky) of Novgorod|Arsenius (Stadnitsky)]] was in prison or exile. In 1933 Alexei was briefly Archbishop of [[Novgorod]] (for several months) and then [[Metropolitan]] of Leningrad.
On [[September 4]], 1943, Alexei I together with a delegation of senior Russian Orthodox clerics met with Joseph Stalin in the Kremlin where a historic decision was made regarding the fate of the Church in the state ruled by the militantly atheist Communist party. In the midst of World War II, Stalin decided to allow the Russian Orthodox Church to function after two decades of severe persecution. The Patriarchate of Moscow was re-established and many churches throughout the Soviet Union were re-opened. Stalin tried to appeal to patriotic feelings of the Russian people , especially the peasantry (who formed the backbone of the Red Army), many of whom grew up in still deeply religious families.
On [[February 2]], 1945 Alexei I was elected Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia. In 1946 Alexei I presided over the controversial "re-unification" of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church which was seen by many as a takeover forced by the Stalinist government. After 1958, Russian Christians led by patriarch Alexei I had to endure a new wave of persecution, mostly carried out through closing down of churches by new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
