Peter of Krutitsy was a prominent Russian Orthodox metropolitan who served as the patriarchal locum tenens during a period of intense Soviet persecution. Born Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky in 1862, he initially worked as a high-ranking lay official for the Holy Synod before answering a call from Patriarch Tikhon to enter the clergy. After his monastic tonsure and consecration as a bishop in 1920, he rose to lead the church administration. He remained the nominal head of the church despite years of imprisonment and exile, eventually facing execution in 1937.