“Great enemy of the Vatican and of the Church Union”. Secret services and presbyter Gabriel Kostel’nyk in the contexst of creating the background for the liquidation of the Church Union in the Western Ukraine (1939–1944)

This article deals with the investigation by NKVD-NKGB of the prominent religious figure, theologian and essay writer, priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Gabriel Kostel’nyk; the aim of this investigation was to involve him in organising the liquidation of Brest Church Union of the year 1596, the dissolution of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and its merger with the Russian Orthodox Church. The study draws on little-known or fi rstly employed documents of Soviet state security institutions. The article analyses main stages in the strategy of Soviet authorities aimed at the liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the context of Sovietifi cation of the Western Ukraine. Using various documents of security services, the article describes contradictory religious, social and political views as well as the world outlook of Dr. Kostel’nyk that had led him to the position of the Head of the Workgroup (May 1945 — March 1946) for organising the integration of Greek Catholics into the Orthodox Church. The article also studies forms and methods of the Soviet security service in the sphere of religion, the specifi city of forced interaction of the Head of the Workgroup with state security services (which in those days were the key instrument of the policy of state atheism), addresses social and psychological features of Father Gabriel’s personality, his attempts to play a peculiar but fruitless “game” with atheistic authorities. Finally, the article looks into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of the priest, main versions of the assassination attempt, the response to his activity from his contemporaries