In August 1904, Galkin entered the Faculty of Law of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University, where he attended lectures for only six months.

On 6 April 1906, Galkin was assigned to the post of priest of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary house church at the residence of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna in the Zhdanovskaya embankment of Saint Petersburg.

The magazine published analytical materials collected from foreign sources and domestic statistics related to alcohol consumption.

In August 1914, Priest Mikhail petitioned the Protopresbyter of the Military and Naval Clergy, Georgy Shavelsky, to appoint him to the active army while maintaining his parish place for the duration of hostilities.

"For excellent and diligent performance of pastoral duties on the battlefield under enemy fire," Mikhail Galkin was awarded the Order of St. Anne, third degree with swords.

On September 22, 1915, by resolution of Metropolitan Vladimir of Petrograd and Ladoga, Priest Mikhail Galkin was appointed to the vacant position of rector of the Transfiguration Koltovskaya Church.

Trotsky to participate in work with the Soviet Government, I am going to Smolny, to comrade Lenin and ask him to give me a job anywhere and by anyone, in any office abandoned by the scattered intelligentsia.

Vladimir Ilyich, after a 10-minute conversation in which, as it seemed to me, he was testing my convictions, he recommends that I refrain from clerical work for now, and that it is better to write an article in Pravda on the issue of separation of church and state.

Church and religious communities are declared to be private unions completely freely managing their affairs... the teaching of the Law of God... is not mandatory... the registration of births, marriages and deaths is transferred from the disposal of churches to special government bodies... A non-denominational state is declared to be in effect in the Russian Republic.

Galkin“, but in this last case only if you call me to work in your ranks, since it should be clear to you that after the publication of this article I cannot imagine remaining among the fanatical, almost pagan masses for another day.” On November 27, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars, having familiarized itself with the text of the letter from “priest Galkin offering his services to the Council of People's Commissars in the field of separation of church and state and in a number of other areas with the attachment of an article for the newspaper,” made a decision (minutes No.

On Monday, December 11, Priest Galkin was summoned for negotiations by the Bishop of Luga, vicar of the Petrograd diocese Artemy.

The newspaper “Banner of Christ” became for a short time the mouthpiece of that part of the clergy that wanted the separation of church and state.

On December 11, 1917, at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, a special commission was created, which should “develop a general plan of action” to “accelerate” the issue of separation of church and state.

On April 11, 1919, he participated in the opening of the shrine with the relics of Sergius of Radonezh[2] and signed the autopsy protocol as a delegate of the People's Commissariat of Justice.

Galkin published many of his articles on the pages of the magazine: “Communism and Religious Rites”, “Trinity Lavra and Sergius of Radonezh”, “At the Autopsy”, “Acts of State”.

In 1919–1920, the leadership of the VIII Department of the People's Justice initiated a campaign to open the relics of Orthodox saints with the subsequent termination of access to them by believers.

At the beginning of September 1919, speaking to the population with a lecture “On Communism and Religion,” together with Krasikov, he proposed to confiscate all the relics from the Church and collect them in a special museum.

On August 9, 1920, Patriarch Tikhon addressed letters to the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Mikhail Kalinin, in which he personally mentioned the name of Galkin among those employees of the VIII Department of the People's Justice, whose actions “are clearly dragging the RSFSR onto the thorny path of persecution of religions by the State and oppression freedom of conscience."

Galkin, together with Krasikov, on behalf of the “Commission under the Agitation Department of the Central Committee on the issue of leaflets and brochures on the campaign for the confiscation of church valuables,” participated in the work of the “editorial troika.” In the spring and summer of 1922, the GPU attracted Galkin “as a consultant” to the process of preparing and organizing a schism in the ranks of the Orthodox Church.

From June to November 1922, a newspaper was published (and until September, a magazine of the same name) under the general title “ Science and Religion ,” of which Galkin was the executive editor; these publications were supposed to contribute to causing a split in the ranks of the Orthodox clergy.

From July 1926 to March 1928, Galkin, as head, was responsible for the work of the party life department of Rabochaya Gazeta (Moscow).