[1][4] The same year, he became a student of Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, graduating with a Master of Divinity in theology in 1983 with thesis titled "Life, personality and ideas of Sergius Stragorodsky, Bishop of Yamburgh and Archbishop of Vyborgh and Finland (later patriarch of Moscow and all Russia) before 1917".

In 1984, he enrolled in doctoral studies at the Department of Medieval History at the Jesuit-affiliated independent school – Fordham University.

[1] At this work Dvorkin encountered some new religious movements, primarily the "Mother of God center", a homegrown Russian sect.

[6] In 1993 Dvorkin founded the first Russian anti-cult organization: Saint Irenaeus of Lyons Information and Advisory Center (Информационно-консультационный центр св.

[1] Through this center, Dvorkin adapted the Western anti-cult movement to the Russian situation, making his target small organizations, few of whom had any serious presence in Soviet times, and which were easy to marginalize.

His role was so great that the anti-cult movement in Russia had been largely defined by him; he was called "the enemy number one of religious extremists".

[7][10] Since 2009, Dvorkin has been vice-president of the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS), an umbrella organization for anti-cult groups in Europe.

[7] Between 1999 and 2012 he was professor and head of the department of the study of new religious movements (сектоведения) at Saint Tikhon's Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia.

[11][12] According to Yuri Savenko, the President of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, Dvorkin has claimed that the followers of Nikolai Rerikh as well as Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, Hare Krishnas, Neo-Pagans, Neo-Pentecostals, and many others are "totalitarian cults".

[13] In May 2008, Dvorkin attended a Sino-Russian Forum on sect studies in Beijing, and in an interview with Xinhua he said that "Falun Gong practitioners feel they do not belong to any country and act entirely in accordance with Li [Hongzhi]'s will.

But they kept absorbing human resources and wealth from it.... Like cancerous cells, they obtain nutrition from the healthy body of society until it collapses.

"[14] The 2009 annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom describes Dvorkin as "Russia‘s most prominent 'anti-cult' activist" who "lacks academic credentials as a religion specialist".