«Это великое событие в нашей церкви». Епископ Луцкий Поликарп о подписании Акта о соединении Украинских православных церквей

Abstract

Analysis of the previously unknown to the scholarship documents strives to close the gaps in studying unknown facts and events of the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine in the days of the Great Patriotic War. The article presents new archival sources in order to explore the history of Orthodoxy in Ukraine more fully and objectively. The significance of the publication of these archival documents stems from current processes and state of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, where it has exposed to persecution by the political elite of Ukraine. Certain circles of the Ukrainian clergy support the split of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its persecution. During the Great Patriotic War religious life in the occupied Ukrainian territories was extremely ambiguous. The Nazi occupiers encouraged the split in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which resulted in emergence of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, which maintained canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which was non–canonical and sought to break all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. The authors have carried out archeographic and source–studies analysis of the new documents in order to establish their authenticity, time and place of their origin and to determine their novelty and scientific and practical significance. Archival sources identified in the course of documentary project ‘Orthodoxy in Ukraine in the days the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945’ shed light on the situation, describe numerous killings of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, speak of cooperation of the episcopate of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church with the occupation authorities. The attempt to create a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church failed. In spring 1943, the troops of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) opened hostilities against the Nazis, who responded by ceasing all support of their spiritual pillar, the Autocephalous Church. The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church only recognized legitimacy of the Autonomous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. After the bishops of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church escape in the steps of the retreating German army, the Orthodox parishes on the territory of Ukraine passed into jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate of the ROC.