Abstract:
Drawing upon archival, published and oral sources, as well as recent studies
on the correlation between religion and nationality, this article argues
that the formal "reunification" of the Greek Catholics with the Russian Orthodox
Church became a successful "subaltern strategy", ensuring the survival
of the Greek Catholic Church through the Soviet period. The article
demonstrates that the "Church within the Church", which came into existence
because of "reunification", for decades preserved its separate identity
within the Russian Orthodox Church. The "Church within the Church"
did not oppose the regime’s assimilation policy directly, yet positioned itself
as Ukrainian and therefore as non-Orthodox (because non-Russian)
and even as non-Soviet. This article examines these specific issues within
the wider context of the survival of the Church in the Soviet state.
