The article shows that in the context of the Civil War and the anti- church campaigns of the Soviet state, St. Patriarch Tikhon considered it expedient to limit the external activity of the clergy exclusively to the protection of the Orthodox Church. In those conditions, this was impossible without proclaiming the Church’s non-interference in politics and neutrality in bloody civil strife, as well as loyalty to the Soviet regime. This position of the Patriarch was gradually formed under the influence of a number of factors since the end of 1918, was shared by the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council. Finally and definitely, it was expressed in the patriarchal message of September 25 / October 8, 1919. It is likely that Patriarch Tikhon internally sympathized with the anti-Bolshevik movement, although he doubted seeing the “strength of the Reds” in his final success. However, the patriarch refused to bless the fratricide, from whom it came, to share the flock that was in the ranks of all belligerents. The proclamation in 1919 of the patriarch Tikhon and the consistent conduct of the principle of apoliticality by the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate from that time could not resolve all the problems facing the Russian Orthodox Church at that time. The Soviet government, in spite of the position taken by Patriarch Tikhon, continued to view the Orthodox Church as its political opponent. In these circumstances, the only possible way of preserving the Russian Church, Patriarch Tikhon, began to associate both with the continuation of the principle of apoliticality in church life, and with a thorough explanation in official church documents, mainly in his letters, of the loyal attitude of the Orthodox hierarchy to the established state system in Russia.