The Russian Orthodox Church: opportunity and trouble

Some misconceptions about the Russian Orthodox Church following the end of World War II have been corrected with the opening of the Soviet archives to the public. While Western historians previously believed that the church had 20-25,000 churches in the 1950s, the actual number was only 13-14,000. Although many parishes were ordered to close down during the time of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, the church experienced a period of growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, a schism, financial troubles and a shortage of priests are making the mid-1990s a troublesome period for the church.