Bolshevik seizure of power

After the Russian Civil War erupted in 1917, the opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church and its institutions strengthened in territories held by the former Russian Empire. The initial anti-religious campaign of Bolsheviks after the fall of the Tsarist regime and the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 focused on targeting Eastern Orthodox Church, seizing its assets, and depriving the church of its capacity to function through antireligious legislation.