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Religion
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Religion and
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1.1.Religione
Religioneeepolitica
politica––Europa
Europa I. Carvalho, Joaquim de
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The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine
During the First Half of the 20th Century
Giulia Lami
University of Milan
Abstract
In the context of the general discourse on Religion and Power, I will focus my analysis
on the Greek-Catholic Church in Western Ukraine – particularly in Galicia – where
in the first half of the 20th century resided the largest Greek-Catholic community of
the European East.
On the basis of the new works about Ukrainian religious life that have appeared in Eastern and Western Countries in the last years, I will analyse some crucial moments in the
development of the Greek-Catholic Church from the end of 19th century to the middle
of 20th century, showing that the friction between Church and State – under different
political regimes such as Austria-Hungary, tsarist Russia, again Austria-Hungary, Poland,
the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and again the Soviet Union – can be explained by the
fact that the Greek-Catholic Church supported the rights of the Ukrainian nationality
and exerted a role in the social, cultural a political life of the region, fostering values and
principles often in contrast with the ideologies of the different rulers.
La questione del rapporto fra Religione e Potere è un tema centrale nella riflessione sulle
società comuniste dell’Europa centro-orientale, a partire dall’Unione Sovietica che fin dall’inizio si è proposta come un’ideocrazia, di cui l’ateismo di Stato era un pilastro.
In questo contesto, mi sono proposta di proseguire lo studio sulla situazione dell’Ucraina,
perché questo paese è sempre stato una frontiera religiosa, dove coesistevano differenti confessioni e fedi religiose. In particolare, ho voluto ripercorrere la storia della Chiesa grecocattolica, che offre, dal nostro punto di vista, un ricco campo di studi.
La mia analisi si è dunque incentrata sulla Chiesa greco-cattolica in Galizia, giacché proprio in questa regione risiedeva nella prima metà del XX secolo la maggiore comunità greco-cattolica dell’Est europeo. Sulla base dei nuovi lavori sulla vita religiosa ucraina apparsi
negli ultimi anni, ho analizzato alcuni momenti cruciali nello sviluppo della Chiesa greco-cattolica dal XIX secolo alla metà del XX secolo: la Prima guerra mondiale, il periodo
interbellico, la Seconda guerra mondiale e le conseguenze dell’annessione sovietica della
Galizia orientale, mostrando i difficili rapporti fra questa Chiesa e le differenti potenze
(Austria-Ungheria, Russia zarista, di nuovo Austria-Ungheria, Polonia, Unione sovietiReligion in Politics
236
Giulia Lami
ca, Germania nazista e di nuovo Unione sovietica) che hanno dominato questa regione nel
periodo considerato.
La frizione fra la Chiesa greco-cattolica e lo Stato può essere essenzialmente spiegata con
il fatto che questa Chiesa sostenne sempre i diritti della nazionalità ucraina ed esercitò un
ruolo di primo piano nella vita sociale, culturale e politica della regione, promuovendo valori e principi spesso in contrasto – anche totale – con l’ideologia dei differenti governanti.
Questo breve studio si propone di contribuire ad una migliore conoscenza di un aspetto
della realtà ucraina che merita grande attenzione alla luce dell’indipendenza acquisita dal
paese nel 1991 e del rinnovamento generale della vita religiosa, duramente ostacolata, ed
anche perseguitata, in epoca sovietica.
Discourse on religion and power is a central theme in reflections on Eastern European
communist societies, beginning with the Soviet Union which, from the outset, presented itself as an ideocracy in which state atheism was a central tenet.
Within this context I would like to explore the situation1 in Ukraine, which, since the
start of the modern age, has served as a religious borderland in which different confessions and religious faiths have co-existed. In particular I would like to review the history of the Greek Catholic Church which, from our point of view, offers a rich field of
study.
In order to understand the present situation, the complexity of the Ukrainian situation
should be considered from a historical and a geopolitical point of view2.
It is only since 1991 that Ukraine has been truly independent; prior to this it was part
of the Soviet Union and largely deprived of autonomy, as were all the Soviet republics.
Prior to WWI it is hardly even possible to refer to Ukraine, as Ukrainian territory was
divided between the Habsburg and the Russian empires.
After WWI, the western Ukrainian territories – Galicia, Transcarpathia and Bukovina
– were divided amongst the states which succeeded the Austro-Hungarian Empire i.e.
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, whilst the already Russian central and eastern
territories formed the new Ukrainian Soviet Republic.
After World War II, thanks to Stalin’s conquests Ukraine recovered most of its western
territories. In 1958, Khrushchev ceded the Crimea to Soviet Ukraine, thus establishing
the current physiognomy of the country.
The period 1917-1921 is a very important moment in this story as, for a short while, an
independent Ukrainian Republic was founded.
Now a renewed Ukrainian Republic, independent and sovereign, lies between the
former Soviet Union and the enlarged European Union. The future political position
of this vast country is not yet clear, due to its uneasy geopolitical location between East
and West3.
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
237
In the meantime Ukraine is undergoing a process of nation building, in which all the
differences existing between its various areas, accumulated during past centuries, both
help and impede the establishment of a common identity. Religious differences, coupled with cultural differences, play a major role in this process, with the issue of the
relationship between nation and religion emerging at the forefront4. It is, however, a
very sensitive topic since it is profoundly linked to the past vicissitudes of the country,
which has always been partitioned or limited in its sovereignty by foreign rulers.
In a scenario characterized by the presence of historically different religious communities (Armenians, Jews, Muslims, Protestants), there are five, sharply divided Churches.
At the beginning of the 1990s there were three Churches in the Eastern Byzantine
tradition and one Church in the Western Latin tradition: the Ukrainian Catholic
Church, also known as the Uniate or Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the Ukrainian
Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)
and the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek Catholic and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which emerged after decades of severe persecution, requested
the Russian Orthodox Church to restore their property, confiscated and given to the
latter by the Soviet government during the Communist regime. However, the Russian
Orthodox Church suddenly experienced a grave crisis, resulting in its division into two
branches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP)5.
It may be said that a large part the conflict between followers of the Greek Catholic,
Latin and Orthodox faiths and within Orthodoxy itself is focused on the question of
the country’s identity and history and that this conflict is less theological than cultural
or political.
In this light we should consider the history of the Greek Catholic Church, which
finds itself once again in an uneasy position between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
This has been its fate since it was founded in 1596 through the Union of Brest, under
which it preserved the traditional Byzantine liturgy and rites, whilst recognising the
Pope as its head, thus dividing the previously united Eastern Byzantine world. At the
same time, the status of the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church6 in the Ukrainian and
Belarusian lands belonging to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with regard to
the Latin Church remained difficult: the latter encouraged the expansion of the Union, maintaining, in words and actions, the idea of the superiority of the Latin rites
and Latin theology which sometimes represented an attempt to Latinize the Greek
Catholic Church.
This difficult position between two worlds and two cultures is common to all the Eastern Catholic Churches, which have always had to face the danger of being absorbed
either by the Orthodox or the Latin Churches. The history of the 20th century has
demonstrated that the Greek Catholic communities in central-eastern Europe have remained faithful to their Eastern Catholic identity even in hostile contexts and through
what has been called an authentic “martyrdom”7, since during the second half of the
Religion in Politics
238
Giulia Lami
20th century they experienced unprecedented persecution under the communist regimes.
I intend to focus my analysis on the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine and particularly in Western Ukraine where, in the first half of the 20th century, the largest GreekCatholic community in eastern Europe resided.
As previously mentioned, the conflict between Latin Catholic and Eastern Catholic rites was acute in Ukrainian lands within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
where the Latin rite was followed by the Polish population, which dominated over the
Ukrainian (or Ruthenian, following the Latin philology) population in every respect.
Ecclesiastical identity coincided mostly with national identity, in a context in which
the lines dividing different nationalities also reflected social, economic and political
divisions. At the same time, the Orthodox world did not accept the presence of a rival
Eastern Byzantine Church, seeing it as a form of Roman interference in local affairs.
After the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which largely encompassed Ukrainian lands, the Greek Catholic Church developed mainly within the Austrian area of the newly partitioned Poland since in the Russian area it was contested
by the Russian imperial authorities and finally eliminated during the 19th century8.
In 1839 under Nicholas I the Uniate Church was united with the Russian Orthodox
Church and subsequently the Uniate Church (except for the Kholm/Chełm diocese
in the Kingdom of Poland9, suppressed in 1875) remained legal only in Galicia and
Transcarpathia under the jurisdiction of the Austrian Empire. Yet even in the Austrian
area of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the history of the Greek Catholics reveals perennial friction with their Latin counterparts, damaging the possibility of
dialogue between the two churches.
When the national question was placed on the agenda by the Ukrainians and the Poles,
both equally dominated by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, religious differences acquired a new dimension. The Greek Catholic Church was perceived as the guardian
and promoter of a rival Ruthenian/Ukrainian identity ready to represent itself as a
competing national project. The dividing lines cut through families and communities,
creating great suffering, as the biography of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi clearly
illustrates.
Roman (Andrei) Sheptyts’kyi (1865-1944) – the head of the Greek Catholic Church
from 1901 to 1944 – belonged to a noble Ruthenian family that was largely Polonized
on the eve of the 19th century. The Metropolitan chose the Ukrainian side, while most
of his family remained on the Polish side, involving clashes in moments of crisis, such as
when the Sheptyts’kyi brothers fought on opposite sides. As Borys Gudziak stated,
as head of the Church and outstanding figure in Western Ukrainian society he systematically
fostered solidarity between the Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian nation. He was a
true father to the Ukrainian people under seven foreign regimes or occupations (Austrian, Russian, Austrian, Polish, Soviet, Nazi, and again Soviet) that were intent on suppressing Ukrainian
cultural expression and/or political self-determination10.
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
239
Borys Gudziak clearly underlines, at the same time, the ecumenical, non-violent attitude of Metropolitan Sheptyts’kyi and his attempts to free the fight for Ukrainian
rights from any extremist tones or methods, an uneasy position to uphold in a world
infected by violence, as was the case in Ukraine during these foreign occupations. “Few
twentieth century hierarchs faced such variegated inter-ethnic and inter-confessional
challenges”11, yet these challenges were a specific feature of the situation experienced by
the Greek Catholic Church in the last century.
Within the context of the Ukrainian experience, nationalism was, above all, perceived
as a means of obtaining equal rights for the so-called oppressed section of the population, as a form of enlightened patriotism. The Greek Catholic Church showed its
solidarity with the Ruthenian population by supporting its national state-building aims
and thus creating a bond between religion and nation, since the Church’s sphere of influence extended beyond religious practice to the social and cultural sphere12. As Borys
Gudziak stated, “without a state to defend the hopes, rights, and ethos of the Ruthenian/Ukrainian nation from early modern times through to the late 20th century, the
church was entrusted (or burdened) with the responsibility of defending the dignity of
the people, enduring with it all of the tribulations of second-class status”13.
It would be an error to see the experience of the Greek Catholic Church only through
the prism of persecution, but it is true that the position of this Eastern Catholic Church,
lying between the Latin and the Orthodox world, has been always difficult. I would like
to reconstruct the sense of this difficulty, in order finally to approach the problem of its
current position, which is still an uncomfortable one. As previously stated, the Greek
Catholic Church was able to develop, in relative terms, within the Habsburg empire, i.e.
in Galicia, Bukovina, Transcarpathia, whilst it was severely repressed in the Romanov
empire and in the future Soviet Union.
As scholars have underlined, with different nuances,
Soviet policy toward the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church cannot be explained in terms of
Marxism or Leninist atheism alone. For models and precedents for Stalinist church policy in
Western Ukraine, one should also look to the treatment of Greek Catholic Church during centuries of tsarist rule and to the traditional caesaropapist pattern relations between the Muscovite/Russian state and the Orthodox Church14.
I now intend to single out some momentous episodes in the history of the 17th to the
20th century.
As previously mentioned, the Orthodox Church never came to terms with the presence
of the Greek Catholic Church within the same territory. This conflict, which began
with the Union of Brest, broke out overtly during the great Cossack revolt of 1648,
one of the aims of which was to guarantee the survival of the Orthodox Church in
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the imposition of the Union15. In Cossack-controlled territories the war against the Union was fierce and uncompromising.
In these Cossack-Ukrainian lands, which came under Tsarist rule after the Pereiaslav
agreement of 165416, the fate of the Greek Catholic Church was definitively sealed. In
Religion in Politics
240
Giulia Lami
general, any attempt to preserve a specific Ukrainian identity, either Greek Catholic or
Orthodox, was severely inhibited17, as the absorption of the Kyiv Metropolitanate by
the Moscow Patriarchate from the late 17th century onwards clearly demonstrates18.
This move reflected the idea of the supremacy of Russia as the unique heir of Kyivan
Rus’19 and this concept embodied the prime reason for Muscovite rejection of the Union, since it was seen as a way of dividing Little Russia (Ukraine) and White Russia
(Belarus) from Muscovy, fostering the Polonization of these regions.
At the same time the Uniate Church remained untouched under the Polish Crown, but
it never enjoyed equal status with the Polish Roman Catholic Church. This fact explains
why the Ruthenian peasantry eventually constituted most of the Greek Catholic Church,
whilst the nobility mainly converted to Roman Catholicism, thus Polonizing itself.
After the partitioning of Poland, in the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands annexed by Russia the process of suppressing the Uniate Church continued during the 18th and 19th
centuries under several sovereigns, guided by the idea that the integration of Ukrainians and Belarusians could only be completed through the suppression of religious distinctions. The methods employed revealed a mixture of persuasion (missionaries) and
coercion (forceful conversions, the abolition of eparchies, imprisonment of priests, suppression of churches and monasteries etc.) from the age of Catherine the Second up to
the second half of the 19th century20.
The Union was not revived even in 1905, when Nicholas II issued the Decree on Tolerance: the Greek Catholics could only reunite with the Latin Catholic Church, thus
losing their specific identity. Even the Latin Catholic Church was severely repressed,
although it did not suffer the persecution reserved for the Greek Church, which was
perceived as heretical21.
In the post-1905 period, a liberalization of attitudes towards religious difference22 may
be perceived, although this was not reflected in legislation due to the resistance of conservative forces inside and outside the Duma23.
The Uniate Church was, therefore, still not tolerated and the first real change only came
about in 1917 under the Provisional Government, when the Catholic Church benefited from a new and more tolerant attitude which also extended to the Uniate Church
in Russia.
The Uniate Church existed only in the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, although in theory it had the opportunity to develop in Russia as an Eastern Russian variant of Catholicism.
As Latin Catholicism was identified with Poland, it seemed logical to anticipate the
possibility of adapting Uniatism to the needs of future Russian Catholics. This idea
was shared by the Uniate Church and also, to a certain degree, by the Holy See, since
by breaking down the historical boundaries between Latin Catholicism and Polish nationality that existed in Russia it could have provided opportunities for Catholic missionary work in the post-Tsarist world.
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
241
This point of view had always met with hostility from Catholic Poland and Orthodox
Russia since traditionally both saw Uniatism as a phenomenon of confusion. This problem has been analysed in detail by Roberto Morozzo della Rocca in his monograph on
the relationship between Revolutionary Russia, Poland and the Holy See24. A very small
group of Russian Catholics existed in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908
Sheptyts’skyi had secretly been granted ecclesiastical powers within Russian territory directly by Pope Pius X and in 1917 he was in Petrograd in order to re-organise Russian
Catholicism. This was a very difficult task, as his role was not recognised officially and the
environment – both Orthodox and Catholic – was hostile, yet he could have achieved
results if the October revolution had not, once again, changed the situation.
When discussing religion and power it must be emphasised that during the pre-revolutionary period Russian centralism could not tolerate the autonomy of the Church,
mainly in relatively recently acquired territories such as the Ukrainian and Belarusian
lands, and any attempt to preserve national distinctions was strongly opposed. Even
though some studies now aim to challenge the image of the Russian Orthodox Church
as the “handmaiden of the state”25, underlining the power conflicts that took place
mainly during the final period of Tsarism, the evidence shows that centralization included the Orthodox Church, which was more an agent than a victim of the policy of
standardising the multinational and multireligious Romanov empire. Until 1905 the
status of Russian Orthodoxy was privileged and any conversion to other religions was
considered apostasy and severely punished. At the same time, religion served as a form
of identity even more than ethnicity, a category which gained momentum only after the
first Russian revolution26.
When Russian troops entered Austrian Galicia at the beginning of WWI, occupying Lviv
and the eastern area (3 September 1914 - 22 June 1915), the new Russian authorities did
not spare any efforts in attacking the Greek Catholic Church which was still active there.
In this context, Metropolitan Sheptyts’skyi could act as a defender of Ukrainian identity,
even though his position was opposed by Russophile Galician Ukrainians who collaborated with the Russian authorities: the lines of allegiance were not so clearly divided by
ethnic and religious criteria as the current view of Ukrainian history claims27.
Sheptyts’skyi was imprisoned in Russia until the Provisional Government released
him in 191728; the attempt to “reunite” the Greek Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church failed with the retreat of the Russian troops and the return of
the Austrians, but the damage caused by Russian persecution of the Greek Catholic
Church lasted for years. Another blow to the Greek Catholic Church was inflicted
by the Austro-Hungarian authorities since among the 30,000 Ukrainians interned for
security reasons –a rationale typical of wartime situations – in death camps in Austria
and Hungary, were approximately 300 Greek Catholic priests suspected of fostering
pro-Russian sympathies29.
Moreover, we must take into account the fact that the attitudes of the Greek Catholic Church in the Habsburg empire and the Orthodox Russified Church in the RusReligion in Politics
242
Giulia Lami
sian empire diverged profoundly with regard to the issue of Ukrainian nationalism; in
Russian areas, the Church mainly supported the centralist politics of Tsarism, denying
Ukrainian claims to a separate nationality and future autonomy, whereas in Austrian
areas the Greek Catholic Church supported the Ukrainian nation-building project. Although the Polish influence was felt to be more alien than the Russian, this difference
nevertheless played an important role not only during the Ukrainian revolution, but
also during the subsequent vicissitudes experienced by the two halves of Ukraine.
It is impossible to provide a summary here of all the events that took place in Ukraine
during the period 1917-1921, but it should be emphasised that the Greek Catholic
Church, through its leading representatives, was politically involved in supporting the
attempt to create a new independent state throughout the difficult circumstances of the
war, the subsequent national revolution and the peace negotiations30.
Sheptyts’skyi took the Ukrainian side during the war and the Ukrainian revolution
which led to the creation of the UNR (Ukrainian National Republic) and the ZUNR
(Western Ukrainian National Republic), lending his support to both republics, which
united officially on 22 January 1919. Unfortunately this reunification was short-lived,
due to the complex interplay of various actors in the Ukrainian scene: the ZUNR fell
under Polish occupation in mid-July 1919, whilst the UNR entered into an alliance
with Poland in 1920 in an unlucky attempt to save UNR territory from Bolshevik conquest. The Red Army succeeded in invading Poland and occupying Galicia until the
Polish-Soviet armistice. The 1921 Treaty of Riga – between Poland and the Soviet Union – led to the partitioning of Ukraine and Belarus along a new Polish-Soviet border.
Sheptyts’skyi left Polish-controlled Galicia in 1920 and tried, in the subsequent period,
to lobby in favour of a kind of Western Ukrainian political autonomy within Poland
without success, since the Council of Ambassadors were committed to an uncompromising Polish anti-Ukrainian attitude. It is important to note the difficult situation of
the Holy See, due to the national divide between Poles and Ukrainians and the conflicting national projects which also involved two different attitudes towards religious
affairs31. The Holy See moved uncertainly between the two poles, but finally accepted
the emergence of the new Polish Catholic state as a positive and unavoidable fact.
Generally, in the post-war period, Ukrainian lands were divided once again and large
Ukrainian minorities were included in the states which succeeded the two former empires. The former Austrian Bukovina, including Chernivtsi (Cernauți in rom.) and the
northern area which was also inhabited by Ukrainians, were included in the Kingdom
of Romania, whilst the Ukrainian-inhabited territory south of the Carpathians, previously ruled by Hungary, was assigned to Czechoslovakia. The eastern half of the former
Austrian province of Galicia – i.e. the ZUNR – remained under Polish occupation
until 1923, when the whole of Galicia, from Cracow to the Zbrukh river, was definitively assigned to the reconstituted Poland32. The Russian part of Ukraine – except
western Volhynia, southern Podlachia, Polissia and the Chełm region gained by Poland
– became the Soviet Ukraine. Theoretically the latter was an independent Republic
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
243
within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (created in 1922), but in practice it was
subordinate to the Bolshevik party and the Soviet Government, now based in Moscow.
This subordination became even more evident during the 1920s and became complete
in the 1930s.
For our purposes, we should concentrate on the territories where the Greek Catholic
Church resided, whilst bearing in mind the overall context, since the various sectors of
Ukraine would once again be united in the 1940s during and after World War II.
In Ukrainian land within the new Polish state the situation between the population and
the Polish authorities was tense, especially where the brief experience of independence
had given rise to a new sense of separatism. While a consistent part of the population
gradually came to accept its minority status and tried to exercise its rights in a Polish
context through legal channels, another section could not come to terms with the new
situation and supported the underground paramilitary activities of the UVO (Ukrainian Military Organization) in the 1920s and the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists) in the 1930s33.
The discriminatory attitude of the Polish government towards the Ukrainian minority in the fields of education, culture and religion – especially the Orthodox faith
– boosted the growth of the underground movement in the interwar period and
helped radicalise the nationalist movement. The OUN in particular evolved towards
a form of integral nationalism which felt authorized to use all means, from sabotage
to murder, to overthrow both Polish and Soviet rule, with the aim of recreating an
independent Ukraine34. In this fight, the Greek Catholic Church maintained a legal
position, openly contesting the influence of terrorism among its flock, but defending the rights of Ukrainians, especially in 1930 when, in order to counteract OUN
violence, the Polish authorities began a policy of “pacification” directed against the
Ukrainians and their institutions, involving violent methods and procedures which
affected the whole population35.
The situation of the Greek Catholic Church in the interwar period in Poland was a
complex one. It had to face many problems of a political and religious nature. First of
all, it should be remembered that by this time there were solid communities of Orthodox believers in Poland, thanks to the annexation of the northern, formerly Russian, regions: the activities of the Greek Catholic Church covered the three eparchies
of Eastern Galicia (the archeparchy of Lviv and the suffragan eparchies of Stanyslaviv
– now Ivano-Frankivs’k – and Peremishl’) subordinate to the Metropolitanate of Lviv
and Halych, based in Lviv36.
In general terms, the activities of the Greek Catholic Church were sanctioned and could
flourish even beyond the ecclesiastical areas. Eventually the Church, due to Sheptyts’kyi’s
personal involvement, favoured the development of a Ukrainian presence in economic,
social, cultural and political spheres. The Orthodox Church was not regarded with the
same benevolence because of its historical roots in the Russian world: the longstanding
Polish anti-Orthodox attitude led to several ‘Latinization’ campaigns.
Religion in Politics
244
Giulia Lami
During 1929-1930 and in 1938 a ‘revindication’ campaign was instigated against the
Orthodox Church, as a result of which several Uniate churches once held by the Orthodox Church were closed, destroyed or converted into Roman Catholic churches. This
was characteristic of the longstanding friction between the Latin Catholic and Greek
Catholic Churches: even though the Vatican-Polish Concordat (1925) had granted
the Greek Catholic Church equal status with the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek
Catholic Church was not, in fact, considered equivalent to the Church of Rome. In the
meantime, Sheptyts’kyi came out openly in favour of the Orthodox Ukrainians’ rights
and against the behaviour of the Polish authorities.
Inside the Greek Catholic Church another confrontation was taking place between the
pro-western (Polish-Latin) tendency and the pro-eastern one, regarding, as usual, how
far the Byzantine religious model, including the controversial issue of celibacy, could
be preserved.
The parish clergy was, in general, married and the pastor and his family were closely
linked to everyday life: a Ruthenian culture was preserved by being passed down from
fathers to sons, who entered secular life with a Ruthenian background and a sense of
distinctiveness. This explains the presence of many priest’s sons in the Ukrainian intelligentsia since the 19th century37. Generally, Sheptyts’kyi favoured maintaining the
old eastern tradition rather than the westernization of the Greek Catholic Church.
Paradoxically, his role in supporting the building of a Ukrainian state, his concern for
secular Ukrainian life, his social and cultural pro-Ukrainian activities – often supported by his personal finances – was used “twice as a pretext (by Polish Primate Stefan
Cardinal Wyszynski in 1959 and 1962) to temporarily halt the process of his beatification”38. Conversely, his moderate attitude and condemnation of violence was judged
too “conciliatory and conservative”39 by the integral nationalists, who had supporters
even amongst the younger clergy within the Greek Catholic Church40.
In perspective, the most “dangerous” of Sheptyts’kyi’s actions was his uncompromising
critique of communism. The news of what was going on in the Soviet Ukraine reached
Poland, creating fear and rage: the anti-Soviet attitude of the OUN was aggravated by
knowledge of the great artificial famine (holodomor) of 1932-1933 in which Ukrainian peasants starved to death, were killed or deported as “kulaks”. The UGCC spoke
openly about the holodomor, trying to promote initiatives to help the population and
to draw international attention to the terrible situation created by the famine41. Yet
from the beginning, atheism and the campaign against religion, combined with the
persecution of believers, had formed Sheptyts’kyi’s negative judgement of communism and led to his warning against its influence in Poland or in Galicia. I would like
here to quote some sentences from Bociurkiw’s translation of a pastoral letter dated 3
August 1936:
Twenty years of experience have hitherto clearly shown that when the Bolsheviks speak about
freedom, they mean slavery; when they speak about prosperity, they use this word to mean famine; when they speak about soviets they mean a system in which no one is allowed to speak their
mind; when they speak about the power of peasantry, they mean a system in which the peasant
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
245
is forced to work without pay… and when they speak about the power of proletariat, they bestow
the proletariat name upon a caste that has been bleeding the people white…42.
Generally, the UGCC had always paid close attention to the situation in Soviet Ukraine
and its press had supplied informations on the situation of Church and society and the
arrests and deportations of the clergy, such as the internment in the Solovki camp of
the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), V. K.
Lypkivs’kyj43.
This attitude was evidently not forgiven when the Soviet troops invaded Western
Ukraine in 1939, but the problem went far beyond Sheptyts’kyi’s professed “anticommunism”44. This was only one aspect of the problem. Whilst in the Soviet world the
Churches had been reduced to silence or collaboration with the authorities, in Poland
they enjoyed relative freedom with regard to the state and had established a presence
in society, through their longstanding work in many areas other than the strictly pastoral45. The UGCC in particular played an authoritative role in the life of Western
Ukraine, being active and influential from a cultural, social, economic and even political point of view, given its close involvement, through a broad network of initiatives, in
the secular life of the region. Sheptyts’kyi’s teachings had, in many ways, stressed this
crucial point, promoting the organizational capacity of the Church as a focal point for
the Ukrainian population46. Undoubtedly, the Greek Catholic Church was perceived
by Soviet Stalinism as a threat, because of its Eastern identity, its Roman allegiances and
its prestige in the eyes of a large part of the Ukrainian population. In order to establish
full Soviet rule in Western Ukraine it was necessary to undermine every possibility of
the Greek Catholic Church exerting its influence47.
During the first occupation of Galicia (1939-1941), as a consequence of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the conflict between
State and Church was not fully resolved.
The Greek Catholic Church resisted Soviet pressure and even cultivated and promoted
active proselytising that extended beyond the boundaries of Western Ukraine48. The
Metropolitan, who was a sincere defender of the unified church49, aimed to contest
atheism wherever possible and to promote a reunification of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches directed by the Greek Catholics. In his eyes, the Soviet occupation was
an opportunity once again to reach the scattered flock in other parts of Ukraine. The
Metropolitan created four exarchates outside Galicia which were recognized by Pope
Pius XII at the beginning of 194150.
Sheptyts’kyi used every available means to infuse the threatened Church with hope
and vigour, including a regular archeparchial synod that was convened in 1940 and in
1941. In the meantime, the Soviet authorities pursued their aim of undermining the
Greek Catholic Church, banning the activities of all its lay or religious institutions,
organizations and publications and seizing the Church’s property. This was a move that
accorded with the general anti-religious behaviour practised by the Bolshevik regime
in the Soviet Union, but in the case of the Ukraine the Greek Catholic Church was
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Giulia Lami
clearly a favoured target for a policy that aimed to erode the church’s material, social
and cultural base. The different forms of pressure included, obviously, anti-religious
propaganda, close surveillance of the episcopate and the clergy and ample use of intimidation through harassment, interrogation, arrests and deportations directed by the
NKVD. Paradoxically, Sheptyts’kyi could still write “they treated us with a caution that
was greater than we could have hoped”51.
Another approach followed by the Soviet power was similar to the old Tsarist system,
focussing initially on the “reunification” of the Greek Catholic Church and the Russian
Orthodox Church through the active collaboration of the latter, involving priests who
were only formally Greek Catholic.
In general this tactic was applied in every situation where it was necessary to subjugate
and wipe out the Greek Catholic Church, i.e. in Belarus and Transcarpathia, not to
mention the other Uniate Churches throughout Eastern Europe52. This final act, however, could only be realized after the end of WWII.
In the meantime, the Soviet policy before the war with Germany was to strengthen
the Russian Orthodox Church in newly acquired territories such as Western Ukraine,
Western Belarus, Bessarabia and the Baltic states, even though this same Russian Orthodox Church was severely weakened within the boundaries of the Soviet Union as a
result of the anti-religious policy followed after 1917. In this way, the Russian Orthodox Church had the opportunity to recover the influence it had lost after the fall of the
Russian Empire in these territories, at the uneasy cost of close collaboration with the
Soviet authorities. This collaboration was fostered after the 1941 German attack on the
Soviet Union, when a new era began in the relationship between State and Church,
under the aegis of a common patriotism.
In general, Stalin also initiated a new moderate religious policy towards other groups
and denominations, depending on their usefulness in the new ideological context defined by the urgency of the fight against the foreign invaders. Not the least of the problems at the time must have been the religious resurgence in the occupied territories,
which in the post-war period played a leading role in bringing charges of “collaborationism” against the churches in these territories53.
This was the case of the Greek Catholic Church of Galicia. Even though it did not renounce its independence in the face of the Nazi power, in many ways it feared re-annexation by the Soviet Union more than occupation by the Germans, since the former would
have signified the end of any hope of national and spiritual independence. The problem
was very complex, as the Greek Catholic Church benefited from the relative freedom
conceded by the German powers in the occupied territories and was able to carry on
with its normal activities and find a modus vivendi in relation to the new authorities.
This neutral relationship ended in the autumn of 1941, when Berlin changed its policy towards the Ukrainian population, persecuting the national forces, particularly the
OUN. In December 1941, the Metropolitan issued a Pastoral Letter, in which he judged
the German repressive action, inviting the population to uphold national pride and de-
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
247
fend liberty54. On 31 August 1942 he wrote to Pope Pius XII expressing his negative
opinion of the German powers, which he perceived as much more “diabolic” than the
Bolsheviks55. On 21 November 1942 he issued the famous pastoral letter “Don’t kill”56.
The Metropolitan offered to mediate on several occasions, in order to help coordinate
the various underground forces competing for leadership of the anti-Nazi resistance57.
He protested personally against the annihilation of Jews, gave asylum in his palace to
Ezechiel Levi, the rabbi of Lviv and created places in monasteries for several Jews58.
The German authorities began to perceive the UGCC as a potential enemy, contesting
its aim of total control and exploitation of the territory. The Church had to be transformed into a manageable bureaucracy and had to refrain from public activity, public
addresses and other related activities59. Nevertheless, the condemnation of Bolshevism
and/or the fear of Sovietisation remained widespread amongst the clergy and the laity
in this martyred region. This explains the Ukrainian mass resistance against the Soviet
troops arriving in the summer of 1944: the underground OUN network, supplemented by the support of the population, sustained the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army)
armed insurgence against the Red Army.
In this difficult context the attack on the Church was postponed and the Soviet authorities at first displayed a conciliatory attitude. The Church responded positively,
underlining its desiderata of respect for religious life and human dignity. Undoubtedly
one of the themes of Sheptyts’kyi’s old polemic against the Soviet power was respect for
legality, intended in a liberal sense, as it would have to be in a state of law. This was not
the case with the Soviets, although the Metropolitan insisted on this point, fearing a
possible future violation of human rights by the Soviet authorities.
In general the Greek Catholic Church’s attitude was inspired by the need to normalise
this reciprocal relationship, assessing its loyalty, but demanding respect for its rights as
they were before 1939. Josyp Slipyi – who succeeded Sheptyts’kyi on his death on 1
November 1944 and had to pursue the negotiations already initiated by his charismatic
predecessor60 – also stressed this principle. However this reasonable attitude did not
correspond to the Soviet plans for reshaping Galicia.
As Bociurkiw shows through a wide range of sources, this search for a modus vivendi
was futile: “it is clear from the now available secret Party and KGB archives that Stalin’s
regime never contemplated a lasting modus vivendi with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church. Instead, it viewed the latter not merely as a part of a united anti-Soviet front
in Western Ukraine, but as its spiritual core”61. After Yalta, Stalin abandoned all his
former caution in relation to the Church, thanks to international recognition of his
territorial gains in the former Polish lands. The Tsarist heritage, communist and atheist
ideology and totalitarian character of the regime personified by Stalin all combined to
seal the tragic fate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
In 1945-1946 a “reunification campaign” began, supported by all available means, ranging from an initial intimidation campaign involving the arrest of Church leaders and
representatives62 to the creation of a “Initiative Group of the Greek Catholic Church
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Giulia Lami
for Reunion with the Orthodox Church” charged with brokering the deal under the
control and patronage of the most powerful organ of the Party-State, the secret police.
The revived Orthodox Patriarchate also played a role in this process of marginalizing
and liquidating the Greek Catholic Church.
The final step was the convening of a synod (Sobor) of the Uniate Church on 8-10
March 1946 at Lviv to announce the “reunification”63. Leaders of the initiative converted to Orthodoxy or suddenly elevated to the status of an Orthodox episcopacy headed
this synod, after the internment of the Greek Catholic hierarchy: a clear uncanonical
procedure that deprived the synod of any credibility64. Nevertheless the reunification
decided by the Lviv synod was extended to Belarus and Carpatho-Ukraine, thus annihilating the Uniate Church in the Soviet Union until the 1990’s65.
Undoubtedly this was a momentous stage in the relationship between religion and
power in the Soviet Union which can be viewed from various perspectives. Father Borys
Gudziak, a prominent scholar who studied the history of the Greek Catholic Church
in great detail, underlines the solidarity between Church and People that characterized
the life of the Church during the 20th century in various contexts, from Latin America
to Ukraine: “abandonment to God and the quest for justice has led many Christians to
take on and share the hardships of a people or a nation”66. In this light, the Greek Catholic experience of suffering and martyrdom should also be evaluated from a theological
point of view within the broader context of Christian experience in the last century.
As previously stated, the Greek Catholics re-emerged at the beginning of the 1990s
after years of underground life into a world where “Uniatism” was criticized by the new
ecumenical orientations of many Christian Churches, including the Catholic Church.
In the light of the Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation the presence of a “united” Church
is seen as an obstacle, particularly since this question always arises when the encounter
between the two Churches seems to be making progress. In the meantime it is difficult
to avoid the impression that ecumenism could become the final weapon against the
constantly challenged existence of the Greek Catholic Church in Eastern Countries,
which first began in Russia.
Notes
For an earlier approach, see my previous contribution for Cliohres on Religion and Nation in Ukraine
during the 19th and 20th Centuries – A Short Survey, that was based predominantly on Western studies.
In these footnotes, for greater accuracy, I will transliterate names and titles in accordance with accepted
academic practice (i. e. using diacritic signs), while in the body of the text I have followed the Library
of Congress rules for transliteration, avoiding the use of diacritic signs.
1
G. Lami, La questione ucraina fra ’800 e ’900, Milan 2005. For a general history of Ukraine see: P. R. Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, Toronto etc. 1996 and O. Subtelny, Ukraine. A History, Toronto 1994, 2nd ed.
2
3
Lami, The Destiny of Ukraine: Europe or Eurasia?, in G. Brogi, G. Lami (eds.), The re-integration of
Ukraine in Europe: a historical, historiographical and politically urgent issue, Alessandria 2005, pp. 311323.
4
A. Pašuk, Ukrajins‘ka cerkva i nezaležnist‘ (The Ukrainian Church and Independence), Lviv 2003; B.
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
249
Gudzjak, Religijne žyttja v Ukrajini u perši p’jat rokiv nezaležnosti (Religious Life in Ukraine in the First
Five Years of Independence), in “Kovčeh”, 2000, 2, pp. 166-184; O. Rejent, O. Lisen‘ko, Ukrajins’ka
nacional’na ideja i chrystyjanstvo (The Ukrainian National Idea and Christianity), Kyiv 1997.
Z. Knox, Russian society and the Orthodox Church. Religion in Russia after communism, London; New
York 2005.
5
The proper word ‘united’ is commonly substituted by ‘uniate’, which has gained pejorative connotations. Despite this, I have opted to use here the term ‘uniate’ because it is extensively used in English.
6
Fede e martirio. Le Chiese orientali cattoliche nell’Europa del Novecento, Vatican City 2003, edited by
the Congregazione per le Chiese orientali, presents a series of papers (presented at Convegno di storia
ecclesiastica contemporanea, Vatican City, 22-24 October 1998) concerning all the eastern Catholic
churches from Ukraine to Albania, from Belarus to Bulgaria. About the activity of Greek Catholic
Church in Transcarpathia, Bukovina, Russia, Romania, Hungary see the fourth issue of “Kovčev”, a
periodical miscellany on the history of Church issued by the Theological Academy of L’viv: Eklezijal’na
i nacional’na identyčnist’ greko-katolykiv Central’no Schidnoji Jevropoy (Ecclesiastical and National Identity of Central-Eastern Europe’s Greek Chatholics), in “Kovčeh”, 2003, 4.
7
H. Diłągowa, Dzieje Unii Brzeskiej (1596-1918), Warsaw-Olsztyn 1996.
8
The Congress of the Kingdom of Poland was abolished after the 1863 Polish insurrection.
9
B. Gudziak, Some methodological Perspectives on the History of Suffering and Witness in the Ukrainian GrecoCatholic Church, in Fede e martirio. Le Chiese orientali cattoliche nell’Europa del Novecento, Vatican City
2003, pp. 23-52, pp. 32-33. On Andrei Sheptyts’kyi see P. R. Magocsi (ed.), Morality and Reality: The Life
and Times of Andrei Sheptyts’kyi, Edmonton 1989; A. Chirovsky, Pray for God’s Wisdom: The Mystical Sophiology of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Ottawa 1992; A. Krawchuk, Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine:
The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky, Edmonton - Ottawa - Toronto 1997; O. Hajova, Mytropolyt Halyc’kyj
(The Galician Metropolitan), in “Ukrajins’kyj almanach 2001”, 2001, pp. 99-103; Id., Chrystyjans’ki zasady suspil’noji dijal’nosti Andreja Šeptyc’koho (The Christian principles Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi’s
social activity), in “Kyjvs’ka Cerkva”, 1999, 4, pp. 47-52. On Andrei Sheptyts’kyi’s legacy, see the testimony
of the present Metropolitan Cardinal Lubomyr Husar: A. Arjakovsky, Entretiens avec le Cardinal Lubomir
Husar. Vers un christianisme post-confessionel, s.l., 2005.
10
Gudziak, Some Methodological Perspectives cit., p. 33.
11
J-P. Himka, Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine: the Greek Catholic Church and the Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia, 1867-1900, Montreal 1999. See also A. Kolodnyj et al. (eds.),
Istorija religiji v Ukrajini: u 10-ty tomach (History of Religion in Ukraine), 10 vol., Kyiv 1996-2002,
particularly the 4th volume: Katolycyzm (Catholicism), Kyiv 2001.
12
Gudziak, Some Methodological Perspectives cit., p. 27.
13
B. R. Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State (1939-1950), Edmonton
- Toronto 1996, p. 1. The same concept is developed in general terms in V. S. Vardys, The Catholic
Church, Dissent and Nationality in Soviet Lithuania, New York 1978 and more specifically in D. J.
Dunn, The Catholic Church and Soviet Government (1939-1949), New York 1977. S. Merlo, All’ombra
delle cupole d’oro. La chiesa di Kiev da Nicola II a Stalin (1905-1939), Milan 2005, speaks about cesaropapist elements introduced by Peter the Great (the transformation of the Church into an administrative department etc.), but stresses, following S. Bulgakov, that in Russia, according to byzantine
tradition, a ‘papism’ as such did not exist in the person of the Tsar, pp. 29-30.
14
S. Plokhy, The Cossacks and Religion in Early modern Ukraine, Oxford 2001.
15
A new study on this crucial topic is: J. Basarab, Perejaslav 1654. A Historiographical Study, Edmonton
(AL) 2003.
16
N.L. Chirovsky, The Church: Defender of Ukrainian National Identity, in “Ukrainian Quarterly”, 1990,
46, 1, pp. 45-58.
17
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250
Giulia Lami
Gudziak, Crisis and Reform. The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Costantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest, cit.
18
Ja. Pelenski, The Context of the “Kyivan Inheritance” in Russian-Ukrainian Relations: The Origins and
Early Ramifications, in P. J. Potichnyj (ed.), Ukraine and Russia in Their Historical Encounter, Edmonton (AL) 1992, pp. 3-19.
19
On the forced conversion of Uniate Ukrainians to Russian Orthodoxy, see the innovative study: B. J.
Skinner, The Empress and the Heretics: Catherine II’s Challenge to the Uniate Church, 1762-1796 (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), PhD., Georgetown University 2001; see also: G. L. Bruess, Religion, Identity
and Empire: A Greek Archbishop in the Russia of Catherine the Great, New York 1997; D. J. Dunn, The
Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars, Aldershot 2004; R. P. Geraci, M.
Khodarkovsky (eds.), Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversions, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia,
Ithaca 2001; W. Lencyk, The Eastern Catholic Church and Czar Nicholas I, Rome; New York 1966;
Diłągowa, Dzieje Unii Brzeskiej (1596-1918) cit.
20
Dunn, The Catholic Church and Soviet Government (1939-1949) cit.
21
R.P. Geraci, M. Khodarkovsky (eds.), Of Religion and Empire cit.; S. Firsov, Russkaja Cerkov’ nakanune
peremen (konec 1890-1918) (The Russian Church on the Eve of Change. End 1890-1918), Moskva
2002; D. Pospelovskij, Russkaja pravoslavnaja Cerkov v XX veke (The Russian Orthodox Church in the
20th century), Moscow 1995.
22
V. Rožkov, Cerkovnye voprosy v gosudarstvennoj Dume (Ecclesiastical Questions in the State Duma),
Moscow 2004 (1st edition Rome 1975).
23
R. Morozzo della Rocca, Le nazioni non muoiono. Russia rivoluzionaria, Polonia indipendente, e Santa
Sede, Bologna 1992.
24
See the pioneering work: G. Freeze, Handmaiden of the State? The Church in Imperial Russia Reconsidered, in “Journal of Ecclesiastical history”, 1985, 36, pp. 82-102.
25
After 1905, the category of ethnicity gained momentum: C. Steinwedel, To make a Difference: The
Category of Ethinicity in Late Imperial Russian Politics, 1861-1917, in D. Hoffmann, Y. Kotsonis (eds.),
Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices, New York 2000, chap. 4.
26
E. Lohr, Nationalizing the Russian Empire: The Campaign against Enemy Aliens during World War I,
Cambridge (MA) 2003.
27
On the captivity of the Metropolitan: C. Korolevskij, Métropolite André Szeptyckyj, 1865-1944, Rome
1964. See also: D. Dorošenko, Arest i ssylka Mitropolita A. Šeptickago (Iz nedavnjago prošlago) (Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi’s Arrest and Deportation. From the Recent Past), in “Na čužoj storone”,
1925, 12, pp. 160-166.
28
For this information, see: Gudziak, Some Methodological Perspectives cit., p. 28.
29
O. Rejent, O. Rubl’ov, Ukrajins’kyj vyzvolni zmagannja 1917-1921 (The Ukrainian Fight for Liberation 1917-1921), Kyiv 1999; O. Krasivs’kyj, Za ukrajins’ku deržavu i cerkvu (For the Ukrainian State
and Church), Lviv 1995.
30
Morozzo della Rocca, Le nazioni non muoiono. Russia rivoluzionaria, Polonia indipendente e Santa
Sede.
31
M. Lytvyn, Ukrajins’ko-pol’s’ka vijna 1918-1919 rr. (The Polish-Ukrainian War. 1918-1919), Lviv
1998.
32
Narysy z istoriji suspil’nych ruchiv i polityčnych partij v Ukrajini (From the History of the Social Movements and the Political Parties in Ukraine), Lviv 2001.
33
Polityčnyj teror i teroryzm v Ukrajini (Political Terror and Terrorism in Ukraine), Kyiv 2002.
34
M. Švahuljak, “Pacyfikacija”. Pol‘s‘ka represyvna akcija u Halyčyni 1930 r. i ukrajins‘ke suspil‘stvo (“Pacification”. The Polish Repressive Action in Galicia in 1930 and Ukrainian society), Lviv 1993, pp. 10-33.
35
The Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine During the First Half of the 20th Century
251
F. Rzemieniuk, Unici Polscy. 1596-1946 (The Uniates of Poland), Siedlce 1998, p. 215, gives these data
about the UGCC status in 1933: the three dioceses together comprised 1983 parish Churches and
2289 members of the clergy.
36
Himka, Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine cit., and particularly J-P. Himka, The Issue of Celibacy at the Lviv Provincial Synod of 1891: Unpublished Documents from the Lviv and Premysl (Peremyshl) Archives, in Mappa Mundi, Lviv - Kyiv - New York 1996, pp. 648-670.
37
Gudziak, Some Methodological Perspectives cit., p. 34.
38
Ibid.
39
Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State cit., p. 22.
40
See, for instance, R. Krynyc’kyj, Nemaje sliv... (There are no words), in “Misioner”, 1937, 9, p. 202.
41
Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State cit., p. 24.
42
“Misioner”, 1926, 11, p. 242. For a biography of V. K. Lypkivs’kyj – shot in 1937 – see A. Žinčenko,
Vyzvolyts‘ viroju (To Free Someone with Faith), Kyiv 1997; for a general view of the repression before
and during the Stalinist period see: I. Bilas, Represyvno-karal’na systema v Ukrajini 1917–1953 (The
Repressive-Punitive System in Ukraine 1917-1953), Kyiv 1994.
43
M. Lytvyn, O. Luc’kyj, K. Naumenko, 1939. Zachidni zemli Ukrajiny (1939. The Western Territories
of Ukraine), Lviv 1999.
44
Rejent, Lisen‘ko, Ukrajins’ka nacional’na ideja i chrystyjanstvo cit.
45
The data show that there were 4.3 million Greek Catholics; 2 million Roman Catholics; 1.5 million
Orthodox, 0.8 million Jews: S. A. Makarčuk, Jetnosocial’noe razvitie i nacional’nye otnošenija na zapadnoukrainskich zemljach v period imperializma (Ethnosocial Development and National Relationships
in the Western-Ukrainian Territories during Imperialism), Lviv 1983, pp. 146-148 and V. R. Kovaljuk,
Kul’turologični ta duchovni aspekty “Radjanizaciji” Zachidnoji Ukrajiny (veresen’ 1939 r. – červen’ 1941
r.) (Cultural and Spiritual Aspects of the “Sovietization” of Western Ukraine. September 1939 – June
1941), in “Ukrajins‘kyj istoryčnyj žurnal”, 1993, n. 2-3, pp. 3-17, p. 10.
46
V. Hordijenko, Stalinizm i Ukrajins’ka greko-katolyc’ka cerkva (Stalinism and the Greek Catholic
Church), in Materialy mižnarodnoji konferenciji, prysvjačenoji žyttju i dijal‘nosti mytropolyta Andreja
Šeptyc’koho (Papers from the International Conference dedicated to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi‘s
Life and Work), Lviv 1990, pp. 41-51; V. R. Kovaljuk, Kul’turologični ta duchovni aspekty “Radjanizaciji” Zachidnoji Ukrajiny cit.
47
A. Sapeljak, Kyjivs’ka Cerkva na slov’jans’komu Schodi (The Kyiv Church in the Slavian East), Buenos
Aires - Lviv 1999.
48
On this theme, see the vast collection of documents: Mytropolyt Andrej Šeptyc’kyj. Žyttja i dijal‘nist‘.
Cerkva i cerkovna jednist‘. Dokumenty i materijaly (1899–1944 rr.) (Metropolitan Adrei Sheptyts’kyi.
Life and Activity. Church and Church Unity. Documents and Materials. 1899-1944), Lviv 1995.
49
50
Sapeljak, Kyjivs’ka Cerkva na slov’jans’komu Schodi cit., p. 168.
Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State cit., p. 57.
51
Ibid.; Dunn, The Catholic Church and Soviet Government cit.; A. B. Pekar, The History of the Church
in Carpathian Rus’, Fairview (NJ) 1992. See also B. Boysak, The Fate of the Holy Union in CarpathoUkraine, Toronto - New York 1963.
52
On the general phenomenon of the rebirth of the Church in the territories occupied by Nazi army, see
F. Heyer, Kirchengeschichte der Ukraine im 20. Jahrhundert, Göttingen 2003, pp. 239-310; H. Fireside, Icon and Swastika. The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet control, Cambridge (MA)
1971; W. Alekseev, T. Stavrou, The Great Revival: The Russian Church under German Occupation, Minneapolis 1976.
53
Mytropolyt Andrej Šeptyc’kyj. Materijaly ta dokumenty (1865–1944 rr.) (Metropolitan Adrei Sheptyts’kyi.
54
Religion in Politics
252
Giulia Lami
Materials and Documents. 1865-1944), Lviv 1995, pp. 70-104; on the UGCC attitude: Ja. Malyk, O.
Surmač, Presa pro dijal‘nist‘ Ukrajins‘koji greko-katolyc‘koji cerkvy v period nimec‘koji okupaciji (The Press
on the Activity of the UGCC in the Period of German Occupation) in Ukrajins‘ka periodyka: istorija i
sučasnist‘ (Ukrainian Periodical Press: History and Contemporaneity), Lviv 1999, pp. 169-173.
V.V. Marčuk, Greko-katolyc‘ka cerkva v umovach nimec‘koho ta radjans‘koho totalitaryzmu (1941-1946)
(The Greek Catholic Church under German and Soviet Totalitarianism. 1941-1946), in “Halyčyna”,
2000, 4, pp. 66-72.
55
A. Kravčuk, Chrystyjans‘ka etyka pid čas nimec‘koji okupaciji Halyčyny, 1941-1944: Mytropolyt Andrej
(Šeptyc‘kyj) pro solidarnist‘, opir vladi ta zachyst svjatosti žyttja (The Christian Ethic during the German
Occupation of Galicia, 1941-1944: Metropolitan Andrei Sheptyts’kyi pro Solidarity, Resistance to
Power and Defence of Sanctity of Life), Toronto 1963, pp. 224-269.
56
For instance, in 1942, he organized a secret meeting between OUN (r) and the underground Polish
forces, which unfortunately had no appreciable results. See P. Potičnyj, UPA ta nimec‘ka administracija
(The UPA and the German Administration) in “Sustriči”, 1991, 2, pp. 137-142.
57
See, among others, Hajova, Mytropolyt Halyc’kyj cit., p. 103.
58
On the secret instruction the Reichkommissar received in 1942 from A. Rosenberg, see O. Lysen’ko,
Cerkovne žyttja v Ukrajini 1943–1946 rr. (Church Life in Ukraine. 1943-1946), Kyiv 1998, p. 17; see
also: I. Pylypiv, Ukrajins’ka greko-katolyc’ka cerkva v period nimec‘koji okupaciji (1941-1944 rr.) (The
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the period of German Occupation), in “Halyčyna”, 2002, 8, pp.
108-115.
59
V.V. Marčuk, UGKC pid provodom J. Slipogo u 40-80-ti rr. ХХ st: nacional’no-duchovna opozycija totalitaryzmu (The UGCC under the guidance of J. Slipyi from the 1940s-1980s: the national-spiritual opposition to totalitarianism), in “Visnik Prikarpats’koho universytetu. Istorija”, 2002, 4, pp. 135-149.
60
Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State cit., p. 100.
61
On the 1945 arrests, see: Sapeljak, Kyjivs’ka Cerkva na slov’janskomu Schodi cit., particularly p. 173; I.
Bilas, Represyvno-karal’na systema v Ukrajini 1917-1953 cit.
62
V. Lencyk, Sobor 1946 p. u L’vovi (The Lviv Council of 1946) in Berestejs’ka Unija (1596–1996) (The
Brest Union. 1596-1996), Lviv 1996. pp. 122-123.
63
Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church cit., p. 154. On the canonical illegitimacy of the Lviv’s
Council (Sobor) see pp. 180-183.
64
On the repressions in Western Ukraine after WWII: I. Vynnyčenko, Ukrajina 1920-1980-ch: deportaciji, zaslannja, vyslannja (Ukraine 1920-1980: deportations, internment, exile), Kyiv 1994; Litopys
Golgoty Ukrajiny (The Annals of the Ukrainian Golgota), vol. II: Represovana cerkva (The Repressed
Church), Drohobyč 1994.
65
Gudziak, Some methodological Perspectives cit., p. 46.
66
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