In 1785, the monastery was closed and transformed into a parish. The Church of the Transfiguration was preserved, while most buildings, including the new stone church of St. Nicholas, were dismantled for bricks. On August 24, 1863, by imperial decree, the monastery was restored under the name Belogorsk Nicholas Desert. In 1865, a stone church was built in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Today, the monastery has been returned to the faithful. On December 19, 2001, the day of St. Nicholas's memory, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Kursk and Rylsk conducted the first service. The monastery has been restored.

After the transfer of the monastery, significant restoration was carried out in the Nicholas church. The altar floor was replaced, and the beams were completely overhauled, as the church had previously been used as a club and had a stage. An oak iconostasis was installed, icons of the Deesis rank were painted, as well as two large kiots for the miraculous Pryazhevskaya icon of the Mother of God and the Kyiv-Pechersk saints, 84 relics of whom are kept in the ark with this image.

In 2008, the painting of the church was completed. The work was done by renowned Moscow icon painters-restorers Alexander Lavdansky and Alexey Vronsky. In 2005, they painted the western wall of the church, the vault, and the altar walls. In 2006, images of the Pantocrator appeared in the center of the church, along with archangels and the four evangelists. In the summer of 2007, the ceiling vault was adorned with the twelve great feasts and images of some great venerable fathers, especially revered in monasticism, as well as the venerable fathers from the Council of Kursk Saints. On the facade of the church, three icons are painted: St. Nicholas above the entrance, the main icon of the Gornalsky Holy Nicholas Monastery, and on either side of the entrance, the archangels Michael and Gabriel.