SECURITY AGENCY SURVEILLANCE OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC UNDERGROUND AMONG THE SPECIAL RESETTLERS OF SOVIET KAZAKHSTAN (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE AGENT FILE ‘REEFS’)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history and social memory of the Greek Catholic underground, which emerged in the Kazakh SSR after the mass deportations from Western Ukraine, carried out in the period 1940-1952, especially the operation ‘West’ in 1947. The underground, operating initially without priests, then, after their release from prison during Khrushchev's amnesty in 1954-1956, was formed by released clergymen of the greek catholic churches banned in the Soviet Union: the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Lviv Metropolitanate) and the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. The centre of their activities in Kazakhstan was Karaganda, where, in particular, the secret bishop Alexander Khira lived until the end of his days. The later beatified priest Oleksa Zaritsky, who died in detention on the territory of Karlag, also lived and worked here. The history and culture of the deported peoples have become part of the social history of Kazakhstan, but unlike the fates of other ethnic communities, the fates of Ukrainians and their collective memory have been very poorly studied. In recent years, due to the declassification of the archives of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, it has become possible to fill some of the gaps. The previously unexplored history of persecution, surveillance and recruitment of underground Greek Catholic clergy in Kazakhstan is reconstructed mainly on the basis of the materials of the all-union agency file ‘Reefs’, which totals 32 volumes. If necessary, this information is supplemented by other sources, including information preserved in the families of special resettlers.