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== History (''Belokrinitskaya'' Hierarchy in Russia, end of 19th century - Present) ==
The conversion of Met. Amvrosii caused a bitter reaction of Russian Imperial authorities and he was soon pressed to leave his [[see]], but not before he consecrated another bishop for his new Church - archbishop Kiril (Timofeev). The activity of the Bielokrinitskaya Hierarchy on the territory of the Russian Empire met with numerous obstructions from Russian imperial authorities, as well as with an internal schism. The situation was radically changed with the publication in 1906 of the Emperor's [[Ukaz ]] "On Religious Tolerance", soon followed by the "unsealing" of the altars at the important religious and cultural center of Old Believers, the [[Rogozhskoye cemetery]].
After the coming of the Bolsheviks to power in 1917 and the Civil war, the Old-Rite Church was subjected to innumerable sufferings and persecutions, just as its former rival, the "Nikonian" Russian Orthodox Church. In 1940, the only [[bishop]] who was not imprisoned by the Soviet atheistic authorities was Bishop Sava of Kaluga who, in the same year, single-handedly elevated another bishop - Irinarch - to the see of the Archbishop of Moscow. The period of persecution was followed by the period of relative stability, under a tight control from the Soviet secret services. However, the time of perestroika and subsequent changes in the country's political, cultural and economic life had a little effect on the position of the Old-Rite Church in the Russian society - the 17-year tenure of Metropolitan Alimpiy (Gusev) is usually considered a time of "stagnation".
