Historiography of the history of the Voronezh diocese during the first years of the communist regime based on materials in the Voronezh archives

The historiography of church life in the Voronezh Diocese has not yet become a subject for academic research. Te author analyzed the contents of the Voronezh Archives and has offered a systematic classification of the materials, identifying materials in state and ecclesiastic archives, literature and periodic publications. Te territory around Voronezh in 1918-1919 was a place of military confrontation between several different parties: German forces, regular formations of the Red and White armies, groups of Cossacks, and various groups of bandits; all of this affected church life and the ability of the diocese to realize the decisions of the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918. Tis also had an effect on the policies of the newborn Soviet state. Te local Party Commitees were not in a hurry to carry out the Decree on Separation of Church and State until mid-1920. A serious decline in church- state relations on the local level occurred in March of 1922, when representatives of the local Party Commitee began confiscating church valuables from the various churches in the diocese.