Antichrist

===Old Believers===
After [[Patriarch Nikon of Moscow]] reformed the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] during the second half of the 17th century, a large number of [[Old Believers]] held that [[Peter the Great]], the [[Tsar]] of the [[Russian Empire]] until his death in 1725, was the Antichrist because of his treatment of the Orthodox Church, namely subordinating the church to the state, requiring clergymen to conform to the standards of all Russian civilians (shaved beards, being fluent in French), and requiring them to pay state taxes.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/Peter1-Rus.html|title=Peter I, czar of Russia|encyclopedia=[[The Columbia Encyclopedia]]|publisher=[[Columbia University]]|location=New York City|date=1935|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080212044338/http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/Peter1-Rus.html| archive-date= February 12, 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

There are two conceptions of the Antichrist among the Old Believers: the spiritual Antichrist and the sensual Antichrist. The sensual means a particular person who will rule at the end of times for literal 3.5 years. The priested Old believers mostly adhere to this conception. The spiritual Antichrist is said to rule in the heretical church and state as a spirit through many people – since the year 1000 in the West and since 1666 in Russia. The true priesthood is considered to be lacking in the world due to 'abomination of desolation', which is synonymous with the rule of Antichrist. Most non-priested Old believers adhere to this conception (except the so called "Chasovennye").<ref>{{cite web |date=25 March 2021 |title=О чувственном и духовном антихристе |url=https://ruvera.ru/articles/o_duhovnom_antihriste |language=ru}}</ref>