St. Petersburg priestless old believers in 1941-2020

The article is devoted to the history of Old Believer communities that do not accept the priesthood in Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, regions of significant distribution of this denomination, where its traditions have always been strong. The work continues an earlier article covering the period of the 1720s-1941, and describes the chosen topic up to the present time. During the Great Patriotic War, some surviving communities of Old Believers came out of hiding after mass repressions, but in 1945-1946 only two of them were officially registered in Leningrad and the region. These communities continued to exist until the time of perestroika, despite the anti-religious persecution of 1958-1964. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of churches and worshipers of Old Believers-Bespopovtsy in St. Petersburg and the region increased to four, but the number of community members remains small. The article is prepared on the basis of a significant set of archival documents not previously introduced into scientific circulation, primarily for the first post-revolutionary decades. The work is intended for researchers, believers, and all readers interested in church history.