| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| FSB declassifies documents on the post-WWII liquidation of the underground episcopate in Ukraine |
| 2025-05-09 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] The FSB has declassified archival documents on the liquidation of the underground episcopate of the Greek Catholic Uniate Church in the Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) region of the Ukrainian SSR in the post-war years. TASS reported this on May 8. According to the materials, the clergy of this episcopate carried out anti-Soviet propaganda, collaborated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN is an extremist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) and expected that Western countries would start a war with the USSR. Declassified documents show that in 1949, state security agencies arrested a group of Uniate priests led by the former abbot of the monastery of the "Vasiliyan" order, Vladimir Balaguruk, who was hiding under the guise of a worker. Other underground priests and those who helped them were also detained. “During the arrest of Balagurak, Bakhtalovsky, Valnitsky and other members of the illegal episcopate, a large quantity of anti-Soviet nationalist literature, a significant amount of gold currency of American, Austrian and Russian coinage, as well as a large quantity of gold and other valuables were discovered and confiscated,” the document says. Balaguruk headed the underground church structure from 1945. He held secret services and collected written oaths of allegiance to the Vatican. The community maintained contact with the West through Ukrainian nationalist channels. A number of members of the episcopate supported the Nazis during the occupation. As reported by the Regnum news agency, the FSB had previously published a document on the Greek Catholic Church's ties to the OUN underground in the western regions of Ukraine. A significant number of priests helped the nationalist gangs, including sheltering their leaders. Law enforcement officers uncovered an underground network and arrested 134 Uniates, including 80 priests, for subversive activities. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #3 I read that the Japanese pilots referred to this model as the "Zippo Lighter" for it's tendency to catch fire in combat. |
| Posted by: Woozle Thritle4606 2025-05-09 09:39 |
| #2 I love pretty birds ^^ |
| Posted by: badanov 2025-05-09 07:38 |
#1
|
| Posted by: badanov 2025-05-09 07:37 |