 All key positions in the Church including bishops have been approved by the Ideological Department of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and by the KGB.The priests were used as agents of influence in the World Council of Churches and front organizations, such as World Peace Council, Christian Peace Conference, and the "Rodina" ("Motherland") Society founded by the KGB in 1975.The future Russian Patriarch Alexius II said that "Rodina" has been created to "maintain spiritual ties with our compatriots" as one of its leading organizers.