Church history

A SHORT HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE RTOC

Patriarch Tikhon''s Catacomb Church. History of the Russian True Orthodox Church.

The Russian True Orthodox Church (RTOC), also known as the Catacomb Church -  a canonical rightful successor to the Tikhonite  Local All-Russian Church, was fully organized in the late twenties and early thirties of the twentieth century because most of the episcopate and clergy refused to collaborate with the ungodly theomachistic communist regime.   At the same time, the "Renovationist Church" also known as the "Living Church" was formed.  The Orthodox Russian people refused to attend these churches and their authority in Russia eventually vanished. Then, in 1943 under Stalin's order, "The Moscow Patriarchate" was organized and became the official "Soviet" or "Red Church", headed by Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky.  Along side of her, the RTOC continued to secretly exist. The RTOC, severely repressed and persecuted, and compelled to an "illegal way of servitude", went underground and became known as the "Catacomb Church".