The book is written on the basis of a course of lectures on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church of the pre-Synodal period, which the author, professor at the St. Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University V. I. Petrushko, has been reading for more than two decades. The publication is dedicated to the so-called First Patriarchal period (late 16th – 17th centuries) of Russian church history and is a continuation of the first part of the lecture course, first published in 2005 under the title “History of the Russian Church from ancient times to the establishment of the patriarchate” and since then repeatedly reissued. The textbook examines in detail the circumstances under which the patriarchate was established in the Russian Church, the events of church life during the Time of Troubles and subsequent years associated with the beginning of the reign of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. Considerable attention is paid to the liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon, which led to the emergence of the Old Believer schism. The church life of Russia at the end of the 17th century, during the patriarchate of Patriarchs Joachim and Adrian, the prerequisites for the Petrine reforms and the synodal reform of the Russian Church, is no less thoroughly examined.