The debate on the restoration of the Patriarchy was not a foregone conclusion at the beginning: opponents of the patriarchate pointed to the threat that it could pose to the conciliar nature of Russian Church and even to the danger of absolutism in the Church; Professor Nikolai Kuznetsov believed that there was a real danger that the Holy Synod, as an executive authority acting in the period between the Councils, may turn into a simple advisory body under the Patriarch, and that will also be a diminution of the rights of bishops members of the Synod. But the issue gained urgency right after the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd on 25 October; and three days after, the debates were suspended and the decision to restore the Patriarchy in the ROC passed on 28 October (O.S.).