Inside one of the churches of Tver, a centuries-old city on the banks of the Volga River, worshippers gather for overnight services celebrating Orthodox Easter, Russia’s most important religious holiday. Easter is normally the occasion for outdoor processions and group singing but this year’s services were cancelled in some places, and in others modified by distancing and mask orders—which were not universally followed.

Evgenii, who used to work in a wood manufacturing company, says he lost his job when Moscow first began ordering pandemic quarantines. Before he was offered a bed in this hostel, he says, he had lived for a time in a social services center in which upright chairs were the only places to sleep. The crutches are for a broken leg that failed to heal properly.

Inside a tented meal kitchen set up by an Orthodox church charity, homeless and other needy people line up to register for food and drink. Workers at the organization, whose Russian name translates to “Mercy,” say that numbers at this tent—one of many such service projects—have tripled since the onset of the pandemic.

Following the centuries-old tradition of processionals that seek divine blessing, groups of Orthodox priests in Moscow this spring began evening walks around their monasteries, sprinkling holy water and praying for protection against the coronavirus. A 21st century flourish for this ancient practice: A monastery abbot posted processional visuals on Instagram. “Today we all need help from above,” he wrote. “The Lord will not leave anyone behind.”

A deeply Russian collage of hardship, history, and faith: one corner of a Moscow food kitchen tent run by the Orthodox service organization called Mercy. The man in military uniform is Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, founder of the Martha-Mariinksy monastery.

Faithful, masked, and un-distanced, Orthodox worshippers gather for procession and prayer outside a church in Tver, two hours from Moscow. Russian Orthodox religious leaders feuded openly this spring over orders to follow pandemic safety measures, with some pastors arguing—as they have in the U.S. and elsewhere—that guided group worship must take precedence over quarantine orders.

On Victory Day, Russia’s annual May commemoration of Germany’s 1945 World War II surrender to the Soviet Union, people and military parades typically fill Moscow’s Red Square. This year’s 75th anniversary events were supposed to have been especially showy but the pandemic quarantine left the square nearly empty of citizens. As military planes roared overhead, the only onlookers were journalists and a few determined patriots who declared themselves uncowed by stay-at-home orders.

After self-isolation orders lifted in Moscow, the Victory Day parade finally filled streets and sidewalks on June 24, six weeks later than originally scheduled. The celebratory show of military personnel and equipment surged past onlookers like these, providing Russians a day of patriotic flourish amid ongoing pandemic anxiety and economic crisis. By the end of the following week, voters had approved constitutional changes that could keep President Vladimir Putin in office until 2036.

On the day of this year’s subdued public events for Victory Day, hazmat-suited medical workers arranged tributes for veterans and their family members under treatment at Moscow’s Hospital No. 52. One doctor stripped his gloves off to play his guitar and walked from room to room, serenading patients and moving many of the elderly to tears.

A young patient, newly admitted and suffering from grave lung problems, is sedated and intubated in the COVID wards of Moscow’s Hospital No. 52.

Inside Moscow's Hospital No. 52, a patient recovering from COVID-19 breathes in the oxygen that is helping him try to return to health.

Nurse with flowers for war veterans on 9th of May

A Moscow intensive care patient lies prone, a position researchers say can improve oxygenation for patients in acute respiratory distress.

Nurse Margarita Sokolova, after working the so-called Red Zone—the most potentially contaminated areas of the hospital—for 24 hours straight.

An indoor swimming pool was emptied and repurposed as an employees’ dining area at Moscow’s Hospital No. 15, a city medical facility that was converted into a COVID-19 specialty hospital.

Physician Stanislav Korzunov waits as a Moscow Hospital No. 52 patient, desperately ill with COVID-19, is prepared for the last-ditch treatment called ECMO. The initials stand for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which circulates the patient’s blood through complex machinery and tubing as a substitute for some heart and lung functions.

Sister Natalia Georgivna, a helper from the Russian charity called Mercy, brings daylight into the flat of Ludmilla Alexandrovna. The visiting nun looks after the elderly, lonely, and sick; she comes to Alexandrovna's home three times a week, and says her caseload increased significantly as the pandemic intensified.