Abstract: Sociopolitical assessments of the religious situation in 1970’s – 1990’s are often associated with the optimistic characteristics of the activities of the religious organizations. Processes related to restoration of the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church, reconstruction and return of the church property were perceived as the result of liberal government policy with regards to the Russian Orthodox Church. In reality, especially in the regions, multiple solutions of central authorities remained at the level of declarations and statements of intentions to act in the spirit of liberalization and democratization. The processes taking place within the Russian Orthodox Church since the middle of 1970’s until the beginning of 1990’s are being analyzed. The author examines the documents from the State Archive of Altai Krai testifying to the situation of parish life of the Russian Orthodox Church in Altai Krai in the context of comparative analysis with the events in other eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church in the territory of RSFSR. Despite the general character of the state church policy, the relationships between the government institutions, represented by multiple commissioners for religious cults affairs, and eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church differed in both, the methods and character of interaction. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis and introduction into the scientific discourse of the sources that have not been previously covered in the scientific literature.