The fate of St. John's Convent in the epoch of the revolution was the same as befell all institutions of piety. The Convent was searched many times, directly plundered, and suffered various forms of arbitrary attack, along with deprivation. All of this was conducted, not by local citizens, but by irresponsible representatives and regiments of the military revolutionaries. In the summer of 1917, in the midst of loud phrases about a "war to the victorious end", Kirensky's pitiful slogans began to reach Cherdyn from Petersburg. "Save the Revolution" was in the air, but they had forgotten about the war and Holy Russia.

Among the other revolutionary slogans, "Down with capital punishment" and "save the Revolution" were very audible, however the daily reality was just the opposite. Whenever the Communists appeared, instantly executions would take place, without trial. And with the executions, ,there occurred murders, assaults,and even more degrading, were the tortures, which had long been forgotten by cultured peoples. People died in various ways.. Not many, however, went to Eternity by such a cruel deatli as the one suffered by Bishop Theophan of Solykamsk, the bishop who refused to bless Abbess Rufina to go to Tobolsk to see the Empress. In this instance the Communists showed a special form of sadism, which was of no benefit even for themselves, because the execution of the bishop was conducted before the eyes of many witnesses.

The Communists dragged Bishop Theophan to the shores of the already frozen Kama River, on December 11, 1917. There they began to rip off the clothing from their victim, while others began to plait the bishop's hair into small braids, in order to tie them together and put a rod underneath, and in this way, lift their victim into the air. And this is the Twentieth Century!!!! In a few minutes the bishop, his arms and legs tied with ropes, was ready for torture by the animal-like godless ones. The torturers cut a hole in the ice, and on both sides of the hole placed benches. On each bench two Communist "operators" stood, holding the rod that went through the braids of the Bishop Theophan. Slowly, the torturers began to submerge the bishop into the icy water and then lifted him up again in half a minute. Again they lowered him into the icy Kama. In twenty minutes, after having switched executioners, they had satisfied their demonic desires. The body of Bishop Theophan was covered with ice two inches thick, but the Martyr remained alive. The crowd of witnesses, among whom were many devotees of the Martyred Bishop, saw this horror with their own eyes (one even survived the Second World War and lived, until her death in 1974, in California). Holy New-Hieromartyr Theophan pray to God for us.

On January 5, 1919, the town of Cherdyn was occupied by troops of the White Army. This union of like-minded souls was not to last for long, however, for orders soon came from the White Headquarters that the troops should retreat. In June of 1919, Matushka Rufina evacuated with the Tobolsk regiment of the White Army in a freight car. With her fleeing sisters, she abandoned the Convent of St. John, and by August the train reached Novo-Nicholaevsk. Having received permission to found the Mary and Martha Sisterhood, the "traveling convent" accepted 150 children into their orphanage and nursery.

Once again retreat was necessary, and the sisters had to abandon their new God-pleasing work. Abbess Rufina, with her sisters, obtained a freight car in the column and moved east to Chyta. An epidemic of typhus broke out among the sisters and the sick were left at the Convent in Chyta.

In February 1920, Abbess Rufina, abandoned and exhausted, arrived in Vladivostok. She soon received news that the sick sisters who had been left in Chyta had recovered and would be joining her. Knowing that they would be tired and hungry from their journey, Abbess Rufina spent all the money she could spare, 400,000 rubles, for some bread, and met the sisters with it on the railroad tracks. By that time it was impossible for the train to reach Vladivostok.

With the help of many good people and a Vice-Admiral, Matushka Rufina was given four acres of land behind the city cemetary of Vladivostok, and received permission to build a new Convent. She was also given the right to use the cemetary Chapel, "the Joy of All Who Sorrow." Soon the Convent was on its feet again. The sisters quickly cleaned up the graves, increased their handiwork, and helped conduct Church services.

But by God's Will, in three years these good works also had to be abandoned, as the time came to evacuate Vladivostok. As a pilgrim, with a knapsack on her back, and her staff in her hand, Abbess Rufina arrived in Harbin, Manchuria at the beginning of June 1923. For several months she was bedridden due to a severe illness, and during this period her faithful sisters lived apart from her in Mo-dya-gu, laboring day and night in order to earn for themselves a piece of bread from their handiwork.