After the arrest and deposition of Metropolitan Pitirim (Onkova) on , Benjamin administered the Petrograd diocese as vicarial Bishop of Gdov. On of that year, he was democratically elected by the clergy and the people to the archbishopric of Petrograd and Ladoga, the first bishop popularly elected in the Russian church. On his title was changed to Archbishop of Petrograd and Gdov by decree of the Holy Synod, and on he was elevated to
metropolitan. According to future
Soviet dissident Dmitri Likhachev, who was then a devoutly Orthodox layman in Petrograd, "Persecution of the Church began almost contemporaneously with the
October cataclysm. This was so intolerable for any Russian that many unbelievers began to go to church, distancing themselves psychologically from the persecutors." In a letter from Petrograd to
Pope Pius XI, Fr.
Leonid Feodorov, the first
Exarch of the
Russian Greek Catholic Church, praised the Orthodox religious revival being masterminded by the new Metropolitan, "These [Orthodox] priests, who formerly seemed to have been struck by dumbness, are today preaching quite well and teaching the Christian doctrine. Under the auspices of some churches, women have also organized study centers were religious subjects are being taught in a very simple manner: Holy Scripture, history of the Church, patrology, dogmatic and moral theology, apologetics, and liturgy. Needless to say, similar activity does not exist in the villages or in the smaller towns, and yet once ignited, the flame of religious fervor spreads rapidly everywhere." Even though many Russian Orthodox bishops and lower clergy enthusiastically supported the
anti-communist White Movement during the
Russian Civil War, Metropolitan Benjamin chose to maintain a purely
apolitical stance. For example, during the anti-religious campaign at the height of the Russian Civil War, the Metropolitan made the offer that if the Soviet State withheld from seizing or otherwise desecrating the relics of
St Alexander Nevsky, that he would suspend any Orthodox priest in his Diocese who aided the White Movement. Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church and Soviet State had diametrically opposite world views. What is worse, all religions were viewed as dangerous counter-revolutionary ideologies that must be eliminated completely through
religious persecution and coercively replaced with
Marxist-Leninist atheism. In a 1918 article about the ongoing
Soviet anti-religious campaign,
Isaak Babel described how he attended an
anti-Christian polemical lecture by a senior official of the Party's
League of Militant Atheists. Inside the former Great Hall of the
Winter Palace, however, Babel witnessed as the Atheist speaker lectured about, "The All-forgiving Persona of Christ and Vomiting up the Anathema of Christianity" while being loudly heckled by Orthodox members of the audience. Babel then attended a Russian Orthodox
Divine Liturgy inside the overwhelmingly crowded
Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan on
Nevsky Prospect. About the Liturgy, Babel recalled, "In his sermon the priest speaks of the Holy Countenance that is once more averted in unbearable pain. He speaks of everything holy being spat upon, slapped, and of sacrileges committed by ignorant men, 'who know not what they do'. The words of the sermon are mournful, vague, and portentious. 'Flock to the Church, our last stronghold! The Church will not betray you!'" Babel also interviewed an old woman who was attending the same Liturgy, who told him, "How nicely the chorus is chanting. What nice services these are! Last week the Metropolitan himself conducted the services -- never before has there been such holy goodness! The workers from our factory, they, too, come to the services. The people are tired, they're all crumpled up with worry, and in the church there's quiet and there's singing, you can get away from everything." In a 18 July 1921 letter to
Metropolitan bishop Andrey Sheptytsky, Exarch Leonid Feodorov recalled, "From the very beginning, no sooner was I named Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church than I sought every means of entering into relations with the Orthodox clergy. The Metropolitan of Petrograd, Mgr. Benjamin, and several others who enjoyed great influence over the clergy and the people gradually became my good friends. In 1918 (within a year of my appointment) I entered into relations with Patriarch Tikhon himself who cordially received me. At the same period we formed a united front with the Orthodox to defend ourselves against the Bolshevik aggressions. In 1919 we made a joint protest. For the first time in
Russian history, the names of Orthodox and Catholic priests were signed to a Christian document drawn up against infernal forces." The real conflict, however, came out into the open during the
Russian famine of 1921 when the Soviet authorities announced the
confiscation of Church valuables, allegedly to pay for famine relief. The Russian Orthodox Church agreed to this, but declined to hand over valuables which had actually touched the
Eucharist. Meanwhile, the friendship and alliance between Exarch Leonid Feodorov and Metropolitan Benjamin collapsed after the latter lost his temper and said, "You promise us Union! You want us to meet like brothers in Christ and all this time your Latin priests are causing havoc to our flock behind our back!" Dmitri Likhachev later recalled, "Services in the remaining Orthodox churches were conducted with especial devoutness. Church choirs sang particularly well as they were swollen by many professional singers (often from the
opera company of the
Mariinsky Theatre). Priests and other clergy officiated with great feeling." Metropolitan Benjamin was willing to donate the Church's valuables voluntarily, but would not accept the plundering, desecration, and confiscation by the State of an increasingly number of church buildings by the Bolsheviks. On 6 March Benjamin met with a commission formed to help the starving that agreed to his voluntary dispersal of funds controlled by the parishes. Newspapers praised Benjamin and his clergy for their charitable spirit. The Government also agreed to allow parishioners to substitute their own valuables for other church valuables of historic or religious significance.
Vladimir Lenin was reportedly enraged when the news reached him. According to
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's
The Gulag Archipelago, "The noxious fumes of Christianity were poisoning the revolutionary will.
That kind of unity and
that way of handing over the valuables
were not what the starving people of the Volga needed! The spineless membership of the Petrograd
Pomgol was changed. The newspapers began to howl about the 'evil pastors' and 'princes of the Church', and the representatives of the Church were told: 'We don't need your
donations! And there won't be any negotiations with you!
Everything belongs to the Government - and the Government will take whatever it considers necessary!'" In response, protesters gathered in Petrograd, shouting and throwing stones at Party officials who were raiding Orthodox churches. In an
ultimatum of his own, Metropolitan Benjamin now demanded proof that the Soviet State had already exhausted all other sources of revenue, solid proof that the seized Church valuables were going only towards feeding the starving, and signed consent from Patriarch Tikhon before agreeing to further confiscations. Dmitri Likhachev later recalled, "As persecution of the Church became more widespread, and executions more numerous so all of us felt an even keener grief for the Russia that was dying. Our love for our Motherland resembled least of all prise in her, her victories and conquests. Nowadays many find that hard to understand. We did not sing patriotic songs -- we wept and prayed." ==Arrest==