Institute of Church History as part of international project ‘Memory of the Nations’ to present information on UGCC underground

The Institute of Church History has joined the international project “Memory of the Nations” This Internet portal is creating archives of testimonies of survivors of the Communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes. The institute has posted four interviews on the portal to present various aspects of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the underground, informs Ukrainian Catholic University's press service.

“These are four interviews from the archives of the Institute of Church History (ICH): with Father Volodymyr Marhitych, Father Mykola Tsaryk, Sister Markiya Bashynska, and Father Methodii Kostiuk,” says Lydia Hubych of the ICH. “We tried to find interviews and excerpts that would paint the widest and more complete picture of the life and work in the underground of the UGCC. On the one hand, each interview is a unique historical source, and on the other, behind each one is specific person who in various ways expressed his or her protest against the repression of Soviet power and defended, often at a very high price, freedom and faith.”

The archive of the Institute of Church History contains materials, eyewitness testimonies from the period of the underground of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (1946-1989).

Last year, the project “Memory of the Nations” was joined by a number of Ukrainian organizations. A digital archive of the Internet portal was created in 2008 by Czech institutions – the association Post Bellum, Czech Radio, and Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The archive has video and audio materials, biographical information, and photographs, as well as diaries, memoirs and other archival documents.