Peter of Krutitsy - After The Bolshevik Revolution

After The Bolshevik Revolution

When the Education Committee was closed down in 1918, in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Russian Revolution, Polyansky worked in the apparatus of the All-Russian Council of 1917-1918 in Moscow. In 1920, when the tide of anti-religious policies of Soviet government was rising rapidly, he was asked by Patriarch Tikhon to do another important service to the Church – to accept monastic tonsure and the episcopacy, in order to assist Tikhon in the administration of the Church. After the request was made, he was reported as saying: "If I refuse, I will be a traitor of the Church; but I am aware that by accepting this offer, I am signing my own death sentence."

Peter was tonsured a monk by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) and quickly advanced through the clerical ranks to be consecrated as Bishop of Podolsk by Patriarch Tikhon on October 8, 1920. Almost immediately, he was arrested and spent 1920-1923 in exile in Veliky Ustiug. Upon his return from exile in 1923, Bishop Peter became one of the prominent members of church government and a close ally of Patriarch Tikhon. In 1923 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop and in 1924 became a Metropolitan of Krutitsy – a titular see in the vicinity of Moscow.

On December 25, 1924, Patriarch Tikhon made a “will” where he designated three possible successors to the Patriarchal Throne upon his death. This step was clearly unforeseen either by the church canons or the Statutes of the Russian Church, but was dictated by the circumstances under which a proper Patriarchal election by an independent church council was impossible. In his will, Tikhon named three candidates: Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) of Kazan, Metropolitan Agathangel (Preobrazhensky) of Yaroslavl and Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) of Krutitsy. Since Peter was the only candidate who was not in prison or exile at the time, on April 12, 1925 (the day of Tikhon’s funeral), he was confirmed as the Patriarchal locum tenens.