The article considers the state policy regarding the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the period of mass famine in the early 1920s. Despite the willingness of the clergy to donate some items of church ware to help the hungry the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree on the confiscation of the Church property. The confiscation was justified by the decision of the Western powers to provide famine relief to Soviet Russia only in exchange for cultural, historical and religious property. At the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RCP (b) L.D. Trotsky suggested the reorganization of the Russian Orthodox Church and the initiation of the new church dissent. The confiscation caused controversy among the clergy and the laity. Some spoke strongly against; others supported the importance of Church valuables transfer, and still others, admitting the necessity to use the Church valuables for famine relief expressed doubts about their use for intended purpose. Contrary to expectations of the Bolsheviks the benefits gained were very small, as most of the property had been confiscated in the years of the civil war. But the political gain was more important. The Russian Orthodox Church suffered a violent blow both at its property and its spiritual sphere.