The article investigates the reasons for the spread of negative images of the clergy, captured during the World War I in the letters of ordinary people and, since 1917, in visual sources. The author explores the state of the systemic religious crisis in the Russian Empire, which manifested itself at different levels: in the relations between those who waited for the convocation of the Local Council and those who resisted it; intraclerical conflicts between representatives of the lower and higher hierarchies; conflicts between the parish clergy and parishioners; contradictions in the writings of the religious philosophers. It is noted that the Great War contributed to the spread of mystical and eschatological sentiments among the different social groups, the growing popularity of sects, and the simultaneous wave of unchurching (rastserkovlenie).