With the adoption of Christianity by Kyivan Rus’ in 988 there began the formation of an Orthodox church tradition that decisively shaped the religious and cultural history of the East Slavic peoples.
In the centuries that followed, church life developed in close interaction with the power of the state. This interaction made it possible to found monasteries, schools and churches and to spread learning, yet at the same time it made church institutions dependent on political circumstances.
This became especially evident in the Russian Empire after Peter the Great abolished the patriarchal administration and established the Most Holy Governing Synod in 1721.
For almost two centuries church government existed within the framework of the state synodal system.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the desire to transform church life, to restore conciliarity and to widen the part played by parish communities in the government of the Church had grown stronger among Orthodox clergy, theologians and laity.
The All-Russian Local Council of 1917–1918 was one of the most important attempts to rethink the order of the Church. It discussed reforms of diocesan and parish administration, of church education and missionary work, and of the relations between Church and state.
Yet many of these reforms were cut short by the revolution, the Civil War and the repressions that followed.