Russia to America (Eastern Orthodox expansion)

A schism known as the Raskol, which created the Old Believers movement, and the sweeping ecclesiastical reforms of Peter the Great that brought the church diocese under state control. These events fundamentally reshaped the Russian Orthodox Church and its relationship with the state and society. The reforms integrated the church more firmly into the state's fabric but also curtailed its independence and autonomy. This was a radical break with the Byzantine model, influenced by the Protestant state-churches of Sweden and Prussia. In 1867, the Russian Orthodox Church was active both in Russia and its territories, marked by the death of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow and the sale of Alaska to the United States. The sale of Alaska led to a reorganization of the church's American diocese, moving its headquarters from Sitka to San Francisco and paving the way for growth as an indigenous, English-speaking church diocese with the OCA (Orthodox Church of America). Interesting to note the interaction between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox in California, see commemoration at this link https://www.asceticlifeofmotherhood.com/blog/stpeterthealeut See the book To My Children and Grandchildren: A Spiritual Testament: On the Fasts, Confession, and the Partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ for a writing of a witness between 1917 and 1938 on atrocities done to Christians in Russia by the secular government. Also St Gabriel Urgebadze a Georgian Orthodox monk who famously burned a 12-meter, 26-foot portrait of Vladimir Lenin during a 1965 May Day parade in Tbilisi to protest communist, atheistic ideology. See his story https://youtu.be/ZjzNwRU-Dhg?si=xaDVcehB7D075mtw