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

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


Oleg YEHRECHII, Ruslan DELIATYNSKYI 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.
The Problem Statement. According to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, modern society "lives in a world of monologues", cannot dialogue and cannot hear another person. At the same time, according to the priest, dialogue is a "crucial element of human culture" that should be found in oneself. These considerations formed the basis of Sviatoslav Shevchuk's new book Dialogue Heals Wounds, the presentation of which took place during the autumn of 2018 in different parts of Ukraine. A peculiar message of the book is an invitation to listen to another in order to be heard (Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, 19 September 2018). The clergyman also paid considerable attention to Ukrainian-Polish relations in historical and modern dimensions and, in particular, the place of the UGCC clergy in the context of relations between the two peoples. Probably, according to S. Shevchuk, in order to better understand each other it is worth not hiding the historical truth, but boldly proclaiming and interpreting contradictory episodes with the hope of resolving them under the care and with the help of the Lord God.
Following the reasoning of the head of the UGCC, in our opinion, there are many "sharp angles" regarding the place of the Greek Catholic clergy in the context of Ukrainian-Polish relations during the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) and the first years after Polish rule in Galicia. Domestic scholars have proved that the clergy of the Greek Catholic Church (GCC) (as the church was called in the interwar period) took an active part in building Ukrainian statehood during the existence of the WUPR. To a large extent, this is why the higher clergy and a significant part of the lower ones have been persecuted by the Polish authorities since July 1919, when the GCC found itself in a new socio-political configuration.
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 Statement of the Basic Material. From July 1919, the GCC was placed in new sociopolitical circumstances, as the government of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth imposed a state of emergency in Eastern Galicia, which was lifted only in 1922. Soon the Polish government abolished the Galician Sejm and the regional division, the entire system of self-government, appointed elders and divided Galicia into three voivodeships. It was forbidden to use the names "Galicia" and "Ukrainian", they were replaced by the names "Eastern Lesser Poland" and "Rusyn".
As early as May-June 1919, the Polish occupation authorities made the first arrests and assassinations of Greek Catholic priests. However, the first manifestations of repression did not yet have the character of a system, but rather occurred due to the chauvinistic mood of individual soldiers of the Polish army. On 13 June 1919, the parish priest of Monastyryska, Fr. Zacharii Podliashetskyi and his colleague Fr. Adalbert Halibei. They were shot dead by a Polish cavalry patrol on the way from Komarivka to Nyzhniv. Polish special services testified to the "sabotage" of Ukrainian shepherds who tried to warn Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Nyzhniv. At the same time, if A. Halibei was previously a field chaplain of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA) (Radevych-Vynnytskyi, 1994, p. 39), then Z. Podliashetskyi was killed because his sons served in the UGA. On 22 May 1919, on the denunciation of J. Werstein, the leader of the Polish underground in Stryi (Pelenska & Babiuk, 1975, pp. 187-188), a Polish field court arrested and ordered the execution of the parish priest of the village of Zawadów, Stryj County, Fr. Ostap Nyzhankivskyi because, according to Polish law enforcement agencies, he hid weapons at home (Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie (AAN), zesp. 322, sygn. 5335a, k. 393).
On 22 June 1919, many Greek Catholic priests from different parts of Galicia were deported to Lviv Prison Bryhidky without a guilty plea: Fr. Anatolii Dolynskyi, Fr. Ivan Halibei from Ustia-Zelene, Fr. Mykola Niklych and others. Soon priests also came to Bryhidky: Fr. Stefan Kuchkuda from Peremyshliany, Fr. Pryima and Fr. Vynnytskyi from Zaliztsi (now -Zboriv district of Ternopil region), Fr. Ivan Koroliuk from Chernelytsia of Peremyshliany region, Fr. Pavlo Oliinyk and Fr. Stepan Mokhnatskyi from Terebovlia. On 10 September 1919, the parish priest of Sambir, Fr. Franz Rabii, who spent three months in prison but was eventually released due to baseless allegations. Fathers were usually kept in inappropriate conditions, they complained about the lack of food, illness (Fr. P. Oliinyk fell ill with typhus): "Prisoners sleep without a canopy and haylofts, filth crosses all boundaries" (Recent Arrests, 1919, p. 2).
There were a total of 612 priests in the Bryhidky prison, 200 of whom were later confined; 175 fathers were tortured in Polish prisons, many of whom appeared in a Polish field court. Among the internees we will name the canon from Przemyśl Fr. Konstantyn Bohachevskyi, later, from 1924 -the first exarch, then metropolitan for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the United States (Blazejowskyj, 1995, p. 601 On 27 June 1919, some priests were imprisoned in the town of Stryi. On 10 July of that year, in completely unsuitable conditions (prisoners were placed in a freight train), priests were transported to the Na Zasanie prison camp in Przemyśl. In the camp, priests were often denied worship, confiscated money, linen, blankets, soap, and sugar. Often in the presence of Polish officers, priests were beaten and subjected to moral torture (Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv (CSHAUL), f. 408, d. 1, c. 47, pp. 3, 8).
The conditions for transporting priests on the way to the prisoner camp in Strzalkowo near Poznan were not better (the train was overcrowded, people were restricted in food, fathers were deprived of personal belongings, watches, clothes and shoes were confiscated; former field chaplain Ivan Halibei was robbed). There was no warm water in the camp in Strzalkowo, typhus was spreading, and cases of dysentery became more frequent, which caused the illness of fathers Vasyl Sen and Franz Novak. The priests themselves lived in unsuitable conditions -in underground barracks, they slept on a bare shed without straw.
There was also persecution at Lviv Greek Catholic Theological Seminary. In mid-September 1919, the Polish authorities made a condition for Bishop Josyf Bocian and the rectors of the seminary to leave the seminary for three days. Bishop J. Bocian was temporarily forced to move to the monastery of the Basilian Sisters, in addition, the Polish authorities refused to provide a grant for the seminar (Demolition of the Theological Seminary, 1919, p. 1). The issue of discrimination against the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary provoked a discussion between the Ukrainian newspaper Nova Rada and the Polish newspaper Gazeta poranna. Ukrainians, in particular, emphasized that they would continue to "protest against the requisition of the house with all their might" (Case of the Ukrainian Theological Seminary, 1919, p. 2).
The repression also affected the activities of the Stanislaviv Theological Seminary. As early as March 1919, the Polish government abolished the state subsidy from the religious fund for theological seminaries, forcing the bishops to close them indefinitely, and then occupied their premises for the needs of the army (Niva, 1921, part 5. p. 163;Bulletin of Stanislaviv Dioceses, 1920, parts I-III, p. 5). In addition, the arrests of the vice-rector Fr. Avksentii Boichuk, professor of theology Fr. Dr. Vasyl Baran and six theological students of theological seminary. By the way, in 1919, according to the Ivano-Frankivsk historian Vasyl Marchuk, 24 priests were deported from Stanislaviv Voivodeship (Marchuk & Pylypiv, 2000, p. 212). In total, 87 clergymen were arrested in the Stanislaviv diocese during 1919 -1920, including Kryloshan chapters, professors and students of theological seminaries, catechists, parish priests and nuns (Deliatynskyi, 2017, p. 100).
The high clergy of the Greek Catholic Church strongly protested against the arrests of clergy. On 24 August 1919, the 27th Conference of Greek Catholic Bishops took place in Przemyśl, at which the text of the protest against the actions of the Polish army in Eastern Galicia to the World Conference in Paris was adopted, as well as a letter to the Ukrainian ambassador in Paris Count Mykhailo Tyshkevych. The text of the protest, in particular, had the following: "The desecration of our churches is taking place, numerous killings without explanation of the civilian population (including five priests), who did not do anything against the Polish army. Mass arrests of innocent people are taking place all over the country, more than 200 priests have been imprisoned, and the faithful are deprived of sacred secrets and spiritual care" (Kravchuk, 1997, p. 55). Bishops of the Greek Catholic Church also protested against the closure of Ukrainian cultural, educational and economic institutions, the banning of Ukrainian publications by Polish authorities, the dismissal of Ukrainian officials and teachers, restrictions on the use of the Ukrainian language, etc. On behalf of the Ukrainian bishops, the text of the protest was signed by Metropolitan Andrii Sheptytskyi on 27 August 1919.
Greek Catholic bishops also sent a letter of protest to the Apostolic Nuncio in Warsaw. The letter, in particular, read: "In four prisons in Pikulychy, prisoners lie in the mud on the floor, naked or in torn, dirty shirts without blankets, without any care, and without light at night. It is common for five to ten of them to die in one day. It also happens that the corpses lie with the sick and dying for two days until they are buried" (Kravchuk, 1997, p. 57). The hierarchs stressed that the choice of metropolitans and bishops, as well as the appointment of priests to pastoral positions, do not fall within the competence of the Polish authorities, which often arbitrarily decide whether or not to appoint priests.
On 26 August 1919, the Greek Catholic bishops issued a Pastoral Message to the clergy and the faithful, in which, in particular, they noted: "The Almighty liked to send us new hard sufferings. …Polish troops occupied the whole region. God knows how much our poor people had to endure. Thousands of innocent civilian casualties in prisons are dying of plague or starvation and enduring unspeakable physical and moral suffering. It seems that the whole nation is said to be at a loss" (Pastoral Epistle… 1919, p. 3). However, the text of the message was confiscated by the Polish security authorities (Confiscated Message of Our Bishops, 1919, p. 1).
On 17 November 1919, Bishop H. Khomyshyn of Stanislaviv issued an order to the eparchial clergy "On the matter of some changes in the text of church services", which regulated the order of prayer for secular authority. Given the repression of the Polish administration of the region against the Greek Catholic clergy, the bishop warned against refraining from glorifying the Polish government (Delyatynskyi, 2011). On 2 November 1919, Bishop H. Khomyshyn wrote a letter to Lviv District General Administration, in which he asked for the illegal and unjust removal of priests from the Stanislaviv diocese (Yehreshii, 2001, p. 13).
Polish special services tried to monitor the degree of resonance of the pastoral message of the bishops to Galician-Ukrainian society. On 14 October 1919, K. Haletskyi, the general delegate of the Polish government in Lviv, instructed all the elders in Galicia to monitor the reaction to the letter of the Greek Catholic clergy due to the "political platform" of the letter (the introductory part of the letter, in his opinion, sought to attack the Polish army). The high-ranking official, in particular, was interested in the way in which priests could acquaint the faithful with the text of the pastoral letter (SATO,f. 14,d. 4,c. 501,p. 1). According to the gendarmerie accomplices of Chortkiv district in Ternopil region, Fr. Snihurovych took an active civil position, who on 4 November 1919 in Bilyi Potik village during the release from the pulpit, noted "that the Russian people should adhere to the line of their faith" and did not change the Eastern rite to the Western one. According to Polish police accomplices, the words of the parish priest of Ulashkivtsi village during a sermon in the local church should be taken as a "hint not to change the rite"; there is the priest's uncertainty of the village Yahilnytsia. At the same time, in the town of Chortkiv, the villages of Shmankivchyky, Dzhuryn and Zvyniach of Chortkiv deanery, Greek Catholic priests did not make political statements when addressing the faithful (SATO,f. 14,d. 4,c. 501,pp. 2,4,6).
According to Polish special services, Greek Catholic priests in the villages of Zahiria and Lesko near Sanok and Kryvche, near Przemyśl, gave no reason to "doubt their credibility and interfere in politics". Instead, in Przemyśl itself, priests of the Eastern rite were more familiar with the text of the Pastoral Message of the Bishops, which was motivated primarily by the politicization of the city and frequent visits to Przemyśl by Ukrainian public figures from Galicia, including Lviv. According to Polish informants, priests risk being influenced by people with "dubious reputations". However, sharp campaign statements were not made by Greek Catholic priests and monks (Archiwum Panstwowe w Krakowie (APK), Oddzial III, zesp. 120/II, sygn. 23, p. 95).
At the same time, the Polish authorities could not ignore the protest mood of the Greek Catholic bishops. This is made clear by the letters of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to employees of the Ministry of the Interior of Poland dated the end of October 1919, which also corresponded to the Ministry of Religions and Education of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the letters, the addressees stated that it was not worth 'teasing the opinion of Rome" in the interests of Polish state, because "human rights missions may become more frequent", which, in turn, could affect Poland's international prestige (APK, Oddzial lII. zesp. 120/II, sygn. 23, k. 93). (It is about the legal status of Eastern Galicia as part of Poland, which at that time was uncertain -O.Ye.; R.D.).
It is probably the intervention of the then Apostolic Nuncio to Poland, Aquile Ratti, who, despite the dissatisfaction of the Polish government and society, succeeded in the trial and, finally, the release of many arrested Greek Catholic priests and monks (Hentosh, 1997, p. 14;CSHAUL, f. 146, d. 8, c. 5065, p. 6;Kravchuk & Haiova, 1999, pp. 700-701). In particular, on the initiative of A. Ratti and Bishop of Stanislaviv H. Khomyshyn, Fr. Ye. Teslia, priest of Korolivka, Tovmatskyi deanery, was released (Kravtsiv, 1975, p. 913). Addressing the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Apostolic Nuncio said that the arrests of the Greek Catholic clergy threatened "serious consequences because the population, especially people deprived of spiritual care, remain ignorant of the basic principles of individual and social life and are actively negatively influenced" (CSHAUL,f. 146,d. 8,c. 5065,p. 6).
In October 1919, a deputation consisting of Father L. Kunytskyi, as well as Y. Lohinskyi and O. Hotskyi appeared before the famous Polish patron Count Rostworowski with a request for help to interned and confined Ukrainian clergy. The count promised to facilitate the release of Ukrainian priests as much as possible (Deputacya w sprawie konfinowanych ksieźa gr. kat., 1919, p. 3). Ukrainian public figures sent similar petitions to polish officials, including elders.
Apparently, the appeals of the Apostolic Nuncio, as well as the collective and isolated appeals of the Greek Catholic hierarchs, forced the occupying authorities to end mass repression, and since then arrests have been used as a means of influence only in some cases. Polish officials claimed that priests should be arrested only in cases where a Greek Catholic minister pursued an anti-state policy, "viciously resisting the Polish nobility". This fact, in their opinion, should have been indicated in the relevant reports. In turn, officials from the Ministry of Religions and Public Education of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in letters to the elders of Nowy Sacz, Gorlice and Hrybiv counties, pointed to the need for more meticulous and "flexible" biographies tracking of fathers suspected of anti-government activities, a clearer separation -which of the fathers should be placed under house arrest (confined), who should be interned, and who should be arrested. The official stressed that the clergy "should read sermons from the pulpit and praise God, and not interfere in politics and disturb public peace". In addition, it was necessary to trace the contacts of priests of the Greek Catholic Church of the elders of Nowy Sacz, Gorlice and Hrybiv, as well as Greek Catholic fathers from the city of Krakow with Ukrainian figures in Eastern Galicia, including Lviv. According to the Polish official, such ties could only exacerbate Ukrainian-Polish coexistence in these regions (APK,Oddzial III,zesp. 120/II,sygn. 23,k. 93).
In December 1919, following an order from the Polish Minister of the Interior, representatives of the Lviv presidium issued an order to all lords and police directors of Lviv and Krakow to decide within 14 days on confined and interned priests in their voivodeships. According to the official, the confined should be escorted home without hindrance, because "they are worthy of God's service". State intervention is required "only by corrupt officials who have ruined themselves with new punishments". However, such priests should be brought to justice only if proven guilty. They need to demand Polish citizenship, conduct audits of those who spread "the mood of independence from Poland", etc. According to the Polish secret services, a special commission should also be set up to develop a register of persons released from internment, to collect data on the behavior of priests during and after their release from internment camps. At the same time, the official insisted on releasing the internees before Christmas (AAN, zesp. Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego, sygn. 928, k. 12).
Due to the intervention of the Apostolic Capital, Polish law enforcement agencies were forced to reconsider their attitude towards the Greek Catholic clergy at the end of 1919 in the prison camp in Strzalkowo. The Human Rights Commission, accompanied by a foreign mission from Warsaw, heard the complaint and the captured priests were soon moved to above-ground barracks (CSHAUL,f. 408,d. 1,c. 47,pp. 2,3). And on 2 January 1920, the clergy were finally released from the camp.
Many priests were released from custody in late 1919, or internment was replaced by confinement. After 7 days of punishment, Father V. Hordynskyi was confined in Bohorodchany, and on 24 December 1919, he was released. Father P. Horodetskyi, who was in Lviv for four months, was soon confined at the parish in Zhuraky, and later released from supervision in December 1919 (State Archives of Ivano-Frankivsk region (SAIFR), f. 2, d. 1, c. 181, p. 53). We mentioned above Fr. O. Konstantynovych, who was first confined in Lviv on the basis of the governorship presidium rescript of 18 December 1919, to be released from house arrest and sent to his parish in Sanok for permanent residence (APP,zesp. 23,sygn. 171,k. 2,3,9). The release of interned clergy was slow, but in the early 1920s only a few of the arrested priests remained in the camps (Kravchuk & Haiova, 1999, pp. 700-701).
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.  (1904 -1939) [Bishop Gregory Khomyshyn andIssues of Ukrainian-Polish Understanding (1904 -1939)