The direct subordination of the church to the state apparatus is a model which is unconventional and alien to Russia, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said Tuesday, speaking at the Russian Senate.

"The time of Peter the Great is commonly regarded as the beginning of the secular experiment in Russia — the start of the reforms which resulted in the introduction of a division between the ecclesiastical and mundane, religious and secular, with direct subordination of the Church to the state apparatus. A model of relations, in a sense entirely alien to our people, was adopted. At the time, it was considered the most progressive," said Patriarch Kirill.

He noted that many scholars believe that the profound ideological upheaval induced by Peter the Great had consequences not only for the State and Church relations, but "in a sense led to the division of society, which ultimately brought on the revolutionary process”.