Josephite movement

Being part of a broader current of non-commemorators [ru], the Josephites tried to create a centralized administrative structure headed by their de facto leader, Archbishop Demetrius (Lyubimov).

According to historians Mikhail Shkarovsky and Alexey Beglov, the number of parishes that joined Josephism reached about 2.5 thousand.

Leningrad became the center of the movement, and Josephism was also widely spread in the Vyatka, Izhevsk, Novgorod, Voronezh, Tambov, Krasnodar, Kiev and Kharkov dioceses.

[1] The resistance began after Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) issued a formal declaration [ru] to all members of the Russian Orthodox Church, in which Sergius called for loyalty toward the Soviet government: "We need to show, not in words but in deeds, that not only those who are indifferent to Orthodox Christianity, not only those who have betrayed it, but also its most zealous adherents, for whom it is dear as truth and life, with all its dogmas and traditions, with all its canonical and liturgical structure, can be faithful citizens of the Soviet Union, loyal to the Soviet government.

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