Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev was the father confessor of the Russian Imperial Family during their first five months of confinement following Nicholas II's abdication in early 1917. Archpriest Victor Potapov is rector of St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Over the course of three decades, he ran the "Religion in Our Life" program on Voice of America. Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey is a historian specializing in Russian decorative arts and cultural history, as well as the Russian spiritual and liturgical tradition.