ABSTRACT
By 1989 the Orthodox believers in Ivanteevka, a Moscow satellite town of over fifty thousand inhabitants, had been trying for over three years to reopen a single church for worship. In post communist Moscow the parish council and its priest, recently appointed to the new church by the patriarch, were being blamed by the plant administration for depriving children of a place for play and relaxation. The plant adminstration continued to resist the churchs return to believers even after a decision of the Moscow City Council, signed by its president, to restore it to religious use. The dispute was resolved by a squadron of paramilitary Siberian Cossacks, who occupied the site on 4 May. The exorbitant taxation on the income and products of enterprises has been reduced to the level of taxes imposed on endeavors by any other social organization. Archbishop Aleksii spoke about the individual characters and personal strengths and weaknesses of the two most likely candidates.
