Russian-Estonian deanary. People of the Baltic States were originally baptized by the Orthodox Church, from 13th с they were converted in Catholicism, from 16th с they were converted in Lutheran. In 1841 the Estonia peasants began to convert in the Orhodox Church. Significant number of Estonians moved in the Saint Petersburg Guberniya in the middle of the 19th с. The idea of the organization of the Estonia- Latvia Orthodox church in Saint Petersburg was expressed by the Council of the Baltic States Orthodox Brotherhood of Christ the Saviour and the Protection of the Mother of God. In 1888 the priest Adam Simo (later he became the dean of the Latvian parish in Saint Petersburg) performed the first Orthodox religious service in Estonian in the Andreyevsky Cathedral of Krostadt. In 1894 the first Russian-Estonian parish was formed in Saint Petersburg, Father Pavel Kulbish, Estonian, graduate of the St Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy, served in this parish; he also was the head of the Russian-Estonian deanary which worked in the Eparchy of Saint Petersburg from 1895 to 1918. Nine parishes were included in the Russian-Estonian deanary ( among of them were seven Estonial parishes, the one Latvian parish and the one Russian-Finnish). The most part of churches were established in the early 20th с.: The Isidorovslaya Church in St Petersburg (1903-07), Church-School of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Gatchina (1907, earlier the religious services were performed in the Cathedral of Apostle Paul); the Petropavlovskaya Church in the village of Klopitsy (it was built in 1784, from 1900 it was the Russian-Estonian church); the Church of St Irina in the village of Volgovo of the Peterhof District (it was built in 1813-17, from 1910 it was the Russian-Estonian church), the church-school in the village of Zayanye of the Gdov District (1907), the Nikolskaya Church in the town of Narva ( the town of Ivangorod; it was built in 1851-54, from 1903 it was the Russian-Estonian church), the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Church in Kronstadt ( it was built in the 1840s as the Anglican church, from 1902 it was the Russian-Estonian church). There were the Orthodox Latvian parish at the Under Gate Skorbyacshenskaya Church of the St Alexander Nevsky Lavra (1904-18) and the Estonian community at the Cathedral of St Catherine, the Martyr in the town of Luga (from 1890s to 1918). The clergy of parishes received the subsidies from the Holy Synod. The repressions were began after the October 1917 Revolution. Archpriest P. Kulbush (his monk name was Platon, in 1917 he was the bishop of Revel) was shot by the Bolsheviks in the town of Tartu in 1919 (he was canonized in 2000). From 1931 to 1938 the following Estonian priests were shot: Archpriest Karp Elb (he was canonized in 2002), Archpriest Nikolay Simo (he was canonized in 2002), Archdeacon Petr Simo, Archpriest Aleksandr Paklyar, Archpriest Ioann Sarv (he was canonized in 2003). The significant part of parishioners were subjected to repressions with priests. By the end of the 1930s all churches of the Russian-Estonian deanary were closed. The Nikolskaya Church in the town of Ivangorod was closed the last in 1944, it was destroyed during WWII. Now the two former Estonian churches were returned to believers: the Isidorovskaya Church was returned in 1993 and the Krestovozdvizhenskaya Church was returned in 2001, but there are no Estonian parishes.