The Renovationist movement ("Living Church") emerged in the spring of 1922, at a time when Patriarch Tikhon was under arrest. A group of Petrograd priests led by Alexander Vvedensky, Vladimir Krasnitsky, and Yevgeny Belkov managed to take control of the church office and unilaterally formed the Higher Church Administration. This initiative was backed by the GPU: as the curator of the movement, Yevgeny Tuchkov, later wrote, the goal was to "set the priests against the bishops, much like soldiers against generals," splitting the Church into warring factions.

The Renovationists demanded a break from the "noble-serf" past of the Church and the abolition of monastic dominance - that is, allowing married white clergy to hold episcopal sees. The movement quickly gained strength: by 1922-1923, more than half of the episcopate and clergy were under its influence, and some hierarchs, including the future Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky), temporarily recognized the Renovationist Higher Church Administration.

But there was no unity. By August 1922, the charismatic bishop Antonin (Granovsky) broke away from the "Living Church" and created the "Union of Church Revival," while Vvedensky headed the "Union of Communities of the Ancient Apostolic Church." In May 1923, a Renovationist council was held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which stripped Tikhon of his rank and monastic status, abolished the patriarchate, and introduced the institution of married bishops.

A turning point came with Tikhon's release in the summer of 1923: the patriarch called on believers to be loyal to the Soviet authorities, and Renovationism, having lost its main opponent-martyr, began to rapidly lose supporters. The authorities later attempted to consolidate the movement into a single "Renovationist Church," but it no longer had real influence. The mass repressions of the 1930s ultimately destroyed the movement, and in 1943, Stalin's focus on restoring the Patriarchal Church deprived the Renovationists of their last support. By the end of the war, only one Moscow parish remained from the movement.