Ivan Buchko: “Our Church Was the First to Suffer Persecution from the reds” (to the 80th anniversary of the Lviv pseudo-council of the UGCC)

Based on declassified documents from the mgb/kgb of the ussr, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine is launching a series of publications to mark the 80th anniversary of the Lviv pseudo-council (March 8–10, 1946). These materials supplement the already known information about the stalinist regime’s special operations to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and absorb it into the russian orthodox church (roc). In particular, new documents have been discovered and processed in the FISU (Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine – Transl.) archives concerning the operational cultivation of Bishops Ivan Buchko and Teodor Romzha, organization of similar pseudo-councils, and implementation of other special measures to destroy the Greek Catholic Church in Transcarpathian Ukraine and in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

After the arrests of the UGCC episcopate in Galicia in 1946, Ivan Buchko remained the only Greek Catholic clergyman of such high rank whom the chekists could not reach, imprison, pressure, or silence. Having connections with influential people and direct access to the Pope, he provided spiritual care to those fleeing bolshevik rule, criticized the stalinist regime for destroying the church, and worked to ensure its existence and development in the diaspora. This greatly irritated the kremlin leadership and its special services.

The resolution to open a case against him stated that “Buchko, as the head of the Greek Catholic Church worldwide, directs it in the spirit of Ukrainian nationalism and conducts active anti-soviet work abroad”. The text of his interview with the Spanish newspaper “Arriba” was attached to the case file. His answers to the newspaper editor’s questions were precisely the evidence of anti-soviet agitation and propaganda that the chekists collected and accumulated to persuade their higher leadership that he was a staunch enemy of soviet power, an agent of the Vatican and international imperialism.

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