The article highlights the relationships between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the «Russian Orthodox Church») in the late 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of collectivization of the villages, which was accompanied by the destruction of traditional life, a dramatic violation of the usual way of life. The focus is on the policy of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church, expressed in the closure of churches and monasteries, militant atheism and repressive measures against priests. The examples from the Ryazan and Tula districts of the Moscow Region analyze the protest movement of peasants against the anti-religious policies of the authorities, active and passive forms of resistance. At the end of the article, the author concludes that the resistance of the peasants to the anti-church policy of the authorities was fatally doomed to be defeated.