Tsar Alexis, Patriarch Nikon, and the Great Russian Church Schism

The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History · Jul 30, 2026 · 7m · transcript

The 17th century was a time of religious turmoil for Russia. Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, the second Romanov ruler, presided over a kingdom still healing from the Time of Troubles. But the greatest crisis of his reign came not from foreign invasion, but from within the Orthodox Church. Patriarch Nikon's sweeping liturgical reforms aimed to align Russian practice with Greek traditions, but they sparked a massive resistance movement known as the Raskol (schism). The Old Believers, led by the fiery Archpriest Avvakum, refused to accept the changes, enduring exile, torture, and mass…