March 10, 2010, marked the 64th anniversary of the end of the pseudo-synod of 1946 where by decree the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated in the USSR.
KYIV – March 10, 2010, marked the 64th anniversary of the end of the pseudo-synod of 1946 where by decree the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated in the USSR. The UGCC web site, with reference to the director of the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University Fr. Andrii Mykhaleiko, reports that the fact that the synod of 1946 was held by joint efforts of the Communist party leadership, state structures, and state security services in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church is proved by documents found by church history study experts in the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine.
One of these documents is a telegram No. 82 of the People’s Commissar of the State Security of USSR Merkulov to the People’s Commissar of the State Security of Ukrainian SSR Savchenko of January 25, 1946, containing clear instructions on the organization of the council in Lviv: “Be informed that the permission to hold the synod of the Greek Catholic Church in Lviv is obtained. In view thereof, 400 thousand rubles will be transferred to the Council of People’s Commissars of Ukrainian SSR to be passed to the initiative group through agent ‘Ptitsyn.’”
“…To ensure the successful organization of the synod, agents should make up at least 60-70% of the composition of the delegates. Also ensure agents make up a sufficient percentage of the invited lay representatives of the intelligentsia. Check all the other delegates and guests beforehand in order not to admit hostile or unreliable elements,” read the instructions.
According to NKVD instructions, a series of arrests of representatives of the leadership of UGCC and “active uniates” was to be made and the press was to be informed of the arrest and the legally defined crimes of the arrested within 10-15 days.