Reunifikacija maloruskih (ukrajinskih) in beloruskih uniatov z Rusko pravoslavno Cerkvijo: pogled od znotraj (na podlagi spominov s konca 18. stoletja)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an objective study of the process of the return of the Uniates (Greek Catholics) to the Russian Orthodox Church in lands which departed from the Polish Commonwealth to the Russian Empire. Historiography has strengthened the view that the transitions of the Uniates to Orthodoxy have always been voluntary and even desirable. At the same time, historians utilized numerical data on conversions to Orthodoxy, very rarely utilizing primary sources. The analysis of memoirs (the writings of government officials on whom the implementation of the policy of religious appeals depended) undertaken in this article, shows that, in fact, there were protests from the Uniate population against violent Orthodoxy. The systemic approach (the method of structural systematization) is utilized in our work, making it possible to examine interconfessional relationships both from the positions of representatives of the authorities and from the Uniate community.