THE REPRESSIVE POLICIES OF THE POLISH AUTHORITIES AGAINST THE GREEK CATHOLIC CLERGY IN 1919: METHODS AND FEATURES

Abstract

The Publication’s Purpose. In the article we try to find out the methods and features of the repressive policies of the Polish authorities against the Greek Catholic clergy in 1919. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematization, scientificity, objectivity, use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic) methods. The research novelty is that a substantive analysis of the repressive policies features of the Polish authorities against the Greek Catholic clergy during 1919 is done; the reasons for the change in the tactics of Polish government structures in relation to the Greek Catholic clergy since the end of 1919 are clarified. The Conclusions. Thus, the repression of the Polish authorities against the Greek Catholic clergy during the second half of 1919 reached significant proportions. This is explained, first of all, by the expressive state position of the clergymen majority of the WUPR era. Finally, the Polish administration in Galicia failed to completely subordinate the GCC to the interests of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and to create a category loyal and obedient to the state from the Greek Catholic clergy. The methods of repressive policies of the Polish authorities during 1919 underwent a kind of transformation – they were initiated as accidental killings (before the occupation of the region by the Polish army in July 1919) and only as the incorporation of Galician-Ukrainian lands grew into mass arrests and internment; it is this change in methods that determines the peculiarities of repression at this time (1919), compared with the following period (before 1923). In fact, from the end of 1919, Polish governmental structures changed their tactics towards the Greek Catholic clergy. Apparently, the appeals of the Apostolic Nuncio, as well as numerous collective and individual appeals by Greek Catholic hierarchs and Ukrainian public figures, forced the occupying power to end mass repression, and arrests have since been used only in some cases. Since then, confinement (house arrests) of fathers will be more practiced. At the same time, the thesis that Polish government agencies would arrest priests from the end of 1919 only if they pursued anti-government policies would require a comprehensive review and further study of the government’s policies towards the GCC clergy during 1920. Conclusions on the topic would either confirm or refute the above thesis.