From the adoption of Christianity until 1917, the Russian Church anathematized Russia's internal enemies. The rulers of the Orthodox kingdom constantly insisted on including in the rite of anathematization a name mention of the country's internal enemies, the fight against which they considered the patriotic duty of all Russian subjects. Peter I, in his speeches, repeatedly conveyed the idea that every great power, along with an external enemy, has an equally dangerous internal enemy, striving to undermine the power of the country from within. The internal enemy, he believed, always acts in alliance with the external enemy. Therefore, it is necessary to fight against him no less decisively than against a foreign aggressor. In different eras, Russia had different internal enemies, but they were all united by several common aspirations - to undermine the Russian Church and state, to shake the spiritual unity of the people and dismember the country. Source: