Recovery of Orthodox Churches in the Second Polish Republic
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The Revindication of Orthodox Churches in the Second Polish Republic was a series of actions led by successive governments of the
Polish state Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
from 1919 to 1939. In particular steps were taken from 1919 to 1924, 1929 to 1934, and 1937 to 1938. The restitution action formed part of the general policy of the Second Republic against the
Polish Orthodox Church The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church ( pl, Polski Autokefaliczny Kościół Prawosławny), commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, or Orthodox Church of Poland, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches in full communion. Th ...
, which aimed to minimize the social and political influence of the
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,
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, and Belarusian national minorities. An important motive was also a strong hostility to the Orthodox Church, a religion which was seen as a representative of the partitioning powers on Polish soil, as well as the memory of the dissolution of Roman Catholic monasteries in the Russian Empire. Action was initially through spontaneous takeovers of churches by
Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and in later stages by pre-prepared government plans. Orthodox churches were torn down, closed, adapted to become Roman Catholic churches (as many were originally) or public buildings. According to surviving documents from 1937 to 1938 the goal was total
Polonization Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя ...
of areas west of the
Bug River uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг , name_etymology = , image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg , image_size = 250 , image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland , map = Vi ...
(traditionally seen as the border between Catholic and Orthodox Poland) and to maximise Polish cultural influences east of it. These plans were not implemented because of the outbreak of
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and because of the attitude of the Orthodox Church.


Legal status of the Orthodox Church

On December 16, 1918, the Polish chief of state issued a decree in which all assets of the
Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (di ...
in Poland were put under the administration of the state. Formally, this step was justified by the need to protect the assets of churches abandoned after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, during the "Bieżeństwo" (the mass exodus of the Orthodox populations from western areas of the then Russian Empire in the face of approaching German troops). The decree did not lose validity even when the population and Orthodox clergy returned to the occupied territories after the war, and after the March constitution guaranteed freedom of religion. Consent to re-open churches and their use for the purpose of worship was issued by the state administration and could not be granted without detailed justification. In 1919, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education (Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego - MWRiOP) ordered seals attached to inactive Orthodox churches, declaring they would take a more comprehensive decision on the Orthodox churches at a later time. In practice, this led to their permanent closures. A July 9, 1919 decree extended this to lands joined to Poland after the
Treaty of Riga The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. ...
. A second decree, the Regulation Commissioner General Directorate of Civil Eastern Territories of October 22, 1919 (rozporządzenie Komisarza Generalnego Zarządu Cywilnego Ziem Wschodnich), known as the "lex Żeligowski", only related to areas east of the Bug River. It commanded the return of all church buildings to be operated by the Roman Catholic Church, however it did not address the issue of churches belonging to the
Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of th ...
. Some problems relating to the nationality of the church buildings that had been taken also developed in 1922's temporary regulations on the relationship of government to the Orthodox Church in Poland, which mainly dealt with issues of
liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
language, meeting organisation, conventions,
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councils, territorial division of the diocese, education, clergy and Orthodox co-fraternities. After the publication of the temporary regulations, the Orthodox Church was also required to present a complete inventory of existing churches and monasteries, as well as a list of the clergy and the estimated number of its faithful. It was only from 1938 to 1939 when statutory solutions to ownership of sacred objects were enacted. In addition to resuming the language issue (it was forbidden to issue religious statements in a language other than Polish), regulation of issues related to the training of religious personnel and the requirement for prayers for the Polish state, the document partially raised the issue of property with more detailed solutions for the next draft law. It set limits on religious land ownership which was relevant as the Orthodox Church still owned 52,200 hectares of land (down from 146,000 hectares in 1918).


The first wave of the recovery from 1919 to 1924


Spontaneous actions by Catholics

During the first wave of the recovery, there were spontaneous actions by local Roman Catholic communities in order to take over Orthodox churches for their own use or to close or destroy them. Such an attitude was a reaction to the earlier policies of the Tsarist government, which treated the construction of new Orthodox churches as part of their policy of
Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
and often built them in areas where there wasn't a need, or quite consciously constructed them in areas to symbolise Russian rule. This earlier process of Russification by the Tsarist government had included closing down Catholic monasteries, officially banning the building of new churches and giving many of the old ones to the Russian Orthodox church, and banning Catholic schools. The acts of retribution were not done with state or local authority consent, but in some cases they were approved by church authorities. In some areas, the latter encouraged the faithful to take over churches: the bishop of
Podlaskie Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province ( pl, Województwo podlaskie, ) is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. The name of the province and its territory correspond to the historic region of Podlachia. The capital and largest ci ...
, Henryk Przeździecki, issued a special decree on December 11, 1918, which called for the priests of his diocese to immediately restore to the Roman Catholic Church all Orthodox churches which had been originally established as Catholic churches (even those set up as Eastern Catholic churches). He also ordered the immediate reopening of all Roman Catholic churches and chapels closed by the Tsarist authorities. The response to the bishop's call was so great that by 1920, Przeździecki changed his ordinance, leaving the decision open on the fate of specific objects seized from the Orthodox church. Performing these actions was much easier after World War I and the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
because the Orthodox church was in organisational chaos. In 1915, retreating Russian troops often took church equipment with them, especially those from the numerous Orthodox military churches. Many Orthodox clergy left too, gradually returning after 1918. A specific feature of the first wave was also the recovery and the destruction of churches seen as symbols of Russian rule, such as the
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or the Church of
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(Cerkiew Świętych Cyryla i Metodego) in
Chełm Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...
(commemorating the liquidation of the Eastern Catholic diocese of Chelm in 1875). This happened both spontaneously and (in the case of the cathedral in
Saxon Square The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
) after long discussions at governmental level. Churches were demolished in
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Łask Łask (; german: Lask) is a town in central Poland with 16,925 inhabitants (2020). It is the capital of Łask County, and is situated in Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Sieradz Voivodeship (1975–1998). The Polish Air Force's 32n ...
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Łomża Łomża (), in English known as Lomza, is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship si ...
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Modlin Fortress Modlin Fortress ( pl, Twierdza Modlin) is one of the largest 19th-century fortresses in Poland. It is located in the town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki in district Modlin on the Narew river, approximately 50 kilometers north of Warsaw. It was o ...
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Opoczno Opoczno ) is a town in south-central Poland, in eastern part of Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It has a long and rich history, and in the past it used to be one of the most importa ...
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Pińczów Pińczów is a town in southern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 (2005). Pińczów belongs to the historic Polish province of Lesser Poland, a ...
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Płońsk Płońsk (; yi, פּלאָנסק, Plonsk) is a town in central Poland with 22,500 inhabitants (2010). Situated at the Płonka river in the historic region of Mazovia, it is the seat of Płońsk County in the Masovian Voivodeship. History Acc ...
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Pułtusk Pułtusk (pronounced ) is a town in northeast Poland, by the river Narew. Located north of Warsaw in the Masovian Voivodeship, it had a population of about 19,000 . Known for its historic architecture and Europe's longest paved marketplace ( in ...
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Rawa Mazowiecka Rawa Mazowiecka is a town in central Poland, with 17,193 inhabitants (2020). It lies in the Łódź Voivodeship and is the capital of the Rawa County. From 1562 the city hosted the ''Rawa Treasury'' for the Polish army. During an excavation in 1 ...
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Różan Różan is a town in Mazovian Voivodeship, northeastern Poland, on the river Narew. National roads 60 and 61 intersect in the town. History In the late Middle Ages, Różan emerged as an important trade center of northeastern Mazovia. Enjoy ...
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Rypin Rypin (german: Rippin) is a town in north-central Poland, in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, about 50 km east of Toruń. It is the capital of Rypin County. Population is 16,950 (2009). History Rypin was founded in the Middle Ages, and ...
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Sieradz Sieradz ( la, Siradia, yi, שעראַדז, שערעדז, שעריץ, german: 1941-45 Schieratz) is a city on the Warta river in central Poland with 40,891 inhabitants (2021). It is the seat of the Sieradz County, situated in the Łódź Voivode ...
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Skierniewice Skierniewice is a city in central Poland with 47,031 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Skierniewice County. The town is situat ...
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and other locations. Some of these places, which did not find their way into the hands of the Catholics, were adapted for secular purposes, for example a former Orthodox church in
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became a scrap yard, one in
Skierniewice Skierniewice is a city in central Poland with 47,031 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Skierniewice County. The town is situat ...
became a granary, and one in Staszów, a theatre.


The attitude of state authorities

The government didn't display a unified position regarding the recovery of churches. Political pressure and pressure from the Catholic Church came in the initial stages, when specific inquiries about the fate of the Orthodox church were considered to favour Catholics. The government was often not thought to have any opinion, which allowed for spontaneous solutions to the problem. The belief of a
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
bias against it caused much bitterness within the Orthodox Church. In practice, the Polish government sought to limit any possible influence of the Orthodox Church, minimising the number of active parishes and Polonizing Orthodox churches associated not only with the Tsar, but - as time went on to an even greater extent - with the Ukrainian national movement. Thus, there were differences in policies for the individual regions. The areas inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Orthodox believers were not massively Catholicised, however measures were carried out to subordinate the hierarchy of the Orthodox church. On the other hand, they totally tried to deny the Orthodoxy in
Chełm Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...
and Podlasie, according to the declaration by Lublin governor Stanislaw Moskalewski, who in 1921 announced that the country west of the Bug River was purely Polish. In a similar vein, the MWRiOP commented in a February 5, 1924, letter that "the Lublin province (...) should strive to Polonize Orthodoxy or displace it in favour of the Roman Catholic Church". Earlier, in 1919, it was established that 5,000 faithful was the norm for the creation of permanently functioning Orthodox parish, while removing the clergy of a closed church would hold back the local population from demanding that it re-open. Back in the 1920s there were cases where a church which had been closed at the request of the population, would re-open for a particularly important holiday, then the practice disappeared, because, according to the governor of Lublin, such temporary openings "evoke bitterness in the population and unwanted reflections". Another constant feature of state policy towards the Orthodox church was not issuing construction permits for new churches or for the renovation of existing ones damaged during World War I. Only the governor of the Volyn province, Henryk Józewski, inquired of the MWRiOP whether it could not be more flexible to approve applications for the construction of houses of prayer. This eventually earned a command to send any application that the office deemed appropriate in for evaluation at a central level. The Minister stated that it "MWRiOP (...) in principle is opposed to the erection of new houses of worship in places where a fixed Pastoral base is provided for". In 1921, the MWRiOP completed work on the first draft of the Act completing the issue of the church, which clearly resolved the issue of ownership of Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic churches in favour of the Roman Catholic Church and the Ministry reserved the right to decide the fate of any church built on state land with state funds or from contributions of the population. The government discussed this project on December 15, 1921, but in fear of the outbreak of mass Orthodox discontent, completely abandoned its consideration. The text was then supplemented with a caveat that a church, even located in a former Catholic church, can remain in the hands of the Orthodox church if it is actively used by the Orthodox community. This solution, however, was conditional on the consent of the bishop of the appropriate Catholic diocese. However, on May 24, 1921, progress of recovery actions in the Lublin region and local interfaith relations exacerbated the situation to such an extent that the MWRiOP had to not only prohibit further occupation of the churches, but also suspend the execution of orders already obtained by Catholics. The relevant regulation was sent to provincial governors. Despite this, proposals and memoranda concerning churches were still received subsequently and had repeated conflicting situations, although on a smaller scale. The most famous location transferred to Catholics after the formal termination was the recovery of a monastery in Zahorowie (Cerkiew Świętych Piotra i Pawła w Zahorowie). In 1925, the Presidium of the Council of Ministers adopted theses responding to the problem of the recovery of the current state of possession of churches with the Orthodox churches and Catholic churches resolving future disputes by mutual agreement, the acquisition of inactive churches by the government, and opening closed churches in the case of real needs of the local community. Declarations of religious liberty and the equality of the two religions, however, had practical consequences. The document was rejected by Bishop Henryk Przeździecki. Przeździecki was also outraged by the placing of the two religions on the same level.


The case for recovery in the Sejm

The problem of church ownership was repeatedly on parliamentary agendas, being raised by different groups. On July 28, 1922, at the request of the Administrative Commission, the
Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
adopted a resolution in which the government was called upon to submit a resolution, which would regulate the issue of the return of Catholic objects confiscated by the Tsarist regime (it did not refer to whether the objects were of Roman Catholic or Eastern Catholic origin though). Since it did not have an adequate resolution, the Committee on the Constitution began to receive large numbers of letters about specific churches and monasteries, written by local Catholics. The Commission moved debate on the issue in the Sejm to 8 February 1924. The result was resolutions in the first Parliament demanded a law regulating the issue, and the second individual administration confirmed recovery of a Catholic church in
Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Lu ...
. Ukrainian MPs demanded a third resolution, which asked for Parliament to restrain from further Orthodox property acquisitions until the publication of the relevant act. This proposal was rejected. Image:Bazylikanmp.jpg, File:Warszawa katedra ordynariatu polowego wp.JPG, File:Hłybokaje, Bieraźviečča. Глыбокае, Беразьвечча (J. Bułhak, XX).jpg,


The reaction of the Orthodox Church and the faithful

The reactions of the population and the Orthodox clergy to the restitution actions was varied. Reclamation of some churches wasn't met with resistance because they were closed, especially in the case of Orthodox churches taken and converted from earlier Roman Catholic or Eastern Catholic churches. Actions only triggered strong controversy in areas inhabited by a large percentage of the Orthodox church followers, where controversial facilities were actively being used by the local population. Both sides tried to gain the support for its case with the local authorities and the government, writing memoranda and relying on the harm suffered in the past (by Catholics) or by the guaranteed freedom of religion (by the Orthodox). The Orthodox faithful also had the support of Belarusian and Ukrainian organizations, which strengthened their case in Polish national policy. The Lublin Provincial Governor stated that "the issue of closed churches (...) is the starting point of action of anti-state subversive elements, preying on the dissatisfaction of the population, as well as Ukrainian nationalists seeking influence among the population". There were often clashes and the destruction of Orthodox property, and people were wounded and arrested. In 1919, during the forced retaking of the Narodzenia Bogurodzicy na Górce Orthodox church in Chełm, a mob destroyed the tombs of Orthodox and Eastern Catholic bishops. In turn, the church's ordination ceremonies at Catholic churches were often arranged in very sumptuous ways, arranging the occasions as "manifestations of being Polish" and sometimes coincided with a conflict between the faithful of both religions. In Ubrodowice, a group of Catholics seeking to take over the Św. Eliasza church, defended by 60 Orthodox people, were injured. In response to these actions the Metropolitan of Warsaw and the entire Polish Orthodox leadership formally approved the pre-existing practice of celebrating major events by sending priests to closed Orthodox churches, encouraging this kind of action. The MWRiOP then demanded a limit to such activities, citing the presence of the strong political emphasis during this type of worship. Recovery actions in the first years of independence was also commented on in the press. Leon Radziejowski, in a
Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...
article titled "Playing with fire", noted that while the actions of Tsarist authorities taking Catholic churches was illegal, the issue of the fate of the controversial buildings directly threatened to have an undermining internal effect. Critical voices on the recovery of churches also appeared in the pages of the foreign press. File:Царква Святой Барбары 2.jpg, File:Slonim338.JPG, File:Kremenets Epiphany Monastery 2 RB.jpg,


The result of the first wave of the recovery

According to estimates by the Ministry in 1914, 630 Orthodox churches operated in Polish lands located in former Eastern Catholic premises and 240 were formerly Roman Catholic churches. In the course of actions to reclaim churches, Roman Catholics took over 175 originally Eastern Catholic churches, and 140 formerly Roman Catholic churches. The Orthodox church still controlled 350 churches and 80 buildings. Other facilities were closed, destroyed or transferred to secular use, with nearly 70% of the churches taken over by Roman Catholics by spontaneous actions without the permission of the authorities. During the first wave of the recoveries, state authorities also took parts of the estates and buildings of Orthodox monasteries when their pre-war inhabitants did not return. This happened in the case of female monasteries in Berezwecz,
Leśna Leśna (german: Marklissa) is a town in Lubań County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, close to the Czech border. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Leśna. As of 2019, the town has a populat ...
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Radecznica Radecznica is a village in Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Radecznica. It lies approximately west of Zamość and south of the regional capital Lublin. ...
,
Różanystok Różanystok is a village and former monastery in northeastern Poland, known regionally for both its ornate 18th-century minor basilica and its agricultural magnet school. It lies approximately south-east of Dąbrowa Białostocka, north of Sok ...
, Teolin, Turkowice, Wirów, and a male monastery in
Supraśl Supraśl (; be, Су́прасль; ) is a town and former episcopal see in north-eastern Poland. Supraśl is in Podlaskie Voivodeship (province) since 1999, previously in Białystok Voivodeship (1975-1998) (1975–1998), and is in Białystok C ...
. In turn, the Roman Catholic Church reclaimed a female monastery: St. Marii Magdaleny in
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
(furnished by the Tsarist authorities with objects taken from the Sisters of the Visitation), the church of St. Mikołaja in
Dubno Dubno ( uk, Ду́бно) is a city and municipality located on the Ikva River in Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Dubno Raion (district). The city is located on intersection of two major ...
(in buildings which were originally
Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
) and buildings in
Volodymyr-Volynskyi Volodymyr ( uk, Володи́мир, from 1944 to 2021 Volodymyr-Volynskyi ( uk, Володи́мир-Воли́нський)) is a small city located in Volyn Oblast, in north-western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Volodymyr R ...
and Zahorów Nowy. Konstanty Srokowski, reporting to Prime Minister
Władysław Sikorski Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 18814 July 1943) was a Polish military and political leader. Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for Polish i ...
on the final results of the actions, did not speak enthusiastically about them and wrote that the Catholic rationale for actions east of the Bug River, whose population had an Orthodox majority, became "increasingly more slender and doubtful".


The second wave of the recovery from 1929 to 1934


Attempts at recovery through the courts

A characteristic feature of this period was the adoption of legal tactics by the Catholic Church. The Archbishop of Vilnius Romuald Jałbrzykowski, the Bishop of
Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Lu ...
, Adolf Szelążek, and the Bishop of
Pinsk Pinsk ( be, Пі́нск; russian: Пи́нск ; Polish: Pińsk; ) is a city located in the Brest Region of Belarus, in the Polesia region, at the confluence of the Pina River and the Pripyat River. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk ...
, Zygmunt Łoziński filed a total of 755 lawsuits against various entities about 553 objects from the past including 202 of Roman Catholic origin. Among them were requests for the return of objects that played a special role in the life of the Orthodox clergy - the Dermań and
Pochayiv Lavra , native_name_lang = , logo = , logo_size = , logo_caption = , image = Панорама Почаївська лавра 02.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = General v ...
monasteries, the monastery and the church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, and monasteries in
Kremenets Kremenets ( uk, Крем'янець, Кременець, translit. ''Kremianets'', ''Kremenets''; pl, Krzemieniec; yi, קרעמעניץ, Kremenits) is a city in Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center o ...
, Zimno and Zhyrovichy. They repeatedly filed lawsuits related to churches in villages with an overwhelming majority of Orthodox people (in 65 cases, in villages where there was a disputed church and no Catholics), or places that throughout their entire existence were Orthodox (the Monastery of St. Onuphrius in
Jabłeczna Jabłeczna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sławatycze, within Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It lies approximately north-east of Sławatycze, south-east o ...
only stayed Orthodox because of opposition from the Governor of
Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
). The Catholic church was well aware that if the Orthodox church conceded to all the legal actions, it would deprive them of a third of the religious buildings in their possession. The Catholic News Agency, commenting on the case, allowed for the possibility that civil unrest would result, but constantly emphasized the need to redress wrongs suffered in the time of the annexation. They did realise however that the number of lawsuits caused issues with not only the Orthodox, but caused doubts among the Catholic faithful, so they issued large numbers of brochures arguing that it was possible to re-transfer disputed objects, and that they would abandon pastoral work in places where there were no Catholics. Discussion on restitution was even more lively than during the first wave of church acquisitions, and at the same time, the issue of property of the Eastern Catholic Church was raised, questioning the right of Roman Catholics to take over those objects, which should legally have been returned to the Eastern Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church created a bad impression by their undervaluations of the disputed objects, for example, the Pochayiv Lavra monastery and its assets were valued at 2,000 złoty. In their actions, the Roman Catholic Church in Poland got clear support from the
Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
, but the Greek Catholic Metropolitan
Andrey Sheptytsky Andrey Sheptytsky, OSBM (; uk, Митрополит Андрей Шептицький; 29 July 1865 – 1 November 1944) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 until his death in 1944. His tenure span ...
, warned against new religious coercion. To defend themselves, the Metropolitan of Warsaw Dionizy (Waledyński) published a special pastoral letter, in which he called upon the faithful to raise money for the legal defence. The act of raising funds also involved the clergy, and a committee coordinating all activities was appointed. Publicly, Catholic bishops justified their lawsuits by consistently claiming that their only concerns were buildings that historically and legally belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.


Demolishing "unnecessary churches" in 1929

In 1929, the state authorities also planned to demolish "unnecessary" churches, specifically to demolish 97 buildings. Parallel to this was the policy of keeping a number of churches closed, even when they were in Orthodox areas. This time the action was met with a sharp protest from the Orthodox community, the Ukrainian parliamentary representation and the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. On October 26, 1929, in the Metropolitan's pastoral letter, he called for the unification of the entire Orthodox community in Poland, sacrifice to pay for legal assistance, and prayer. Russian and Ukrainian organisations (a special committee chaired by Serhij Chruckyj developed and published documents relating to the recovery of churches) additionally appealed to the Sejm. Protests also flowed in from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and from outside Poland, with protests held in Europe, the US and Japan, and one of the organisations even appealed to the
League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. Meanwhile, the Minister of Education Czerwinski, when repeatedly asked by MPs about the fate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, pretended to be unfamiliar with the topic. He assured them that there were no plans to demolish churches and that he was not aware of cases of desecration of religious objects. Finally, the overwhelming attitude of the Orthodox community meant that fewer churches (23 of them) were destroyed than had initially been planned.


The government's position

The official position of the government on the issue of the recovery of churches was expressed by minister Sławomir Czerwiński in January 1930, declaring the need to take into account the demands of all faiths. The government was strongly supportive of concepts of the Catholicism of the eastern borderlands and continued the predetermined policy of Polonizing the Polish Orthodox Church and limiting the development of their religion. On the other hand, government circles feared activism within the Orthodox and Ukrainian communities, as well as violence. Therefore, it is considered dangerous to leave matters in the hands of the court. Eventually, on January 16, 1934, an official statement from the Supreme Court closed the judicial path to take over churches. The government had been talking with a Pontifical Commission, eager to forge a common position and consistently enforce them on the Orthodox Church. On April 23, 1932, the government resigned from discussions of the problem of the Eastern Catholic Church as too complex, but the Roman Catholic Church repeatedly returned to the subject. There were two approaches to solve the problem - an express agreement between the interested churches or the government's commitment to provide Catholics with those objects which they indicated as necessary. Meanwhile, the government sought to establish specific numbers in regard to the movement of Orthodox churches, Roman Catholic churches and Eastern Catholic churches by conducting further research as to their fates. A separate project was presented by the government for monasteries. A document from February 1, 1936, announced the liquidation of the monastery of the Holy Trinity (Cerkiew Św. Trójcy i klasztor Bazylianów) in Vilnius, the merger of female monasteries in Vilnius and Berezwecz (buildings of the latter had been taken previously) and the closure of the
Skete A skete ( ) is a monastic community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of four types of early monastic orders, a ...
subordinate of the Pochayiv Lavra. Implementation of this was planned but did not take place.


Recovery action and Polonization from 1937 to 1938


Political Background

In the 1930s, the Polish government finally bowed to the assimilation of national minorities, thereby pre-empting the maximum Polonization of the Orthodox. Significant to this was the speech by the governor of Lublin, Józef Rożniecki, in 1935, for which the factor of the Russification of the Orthodox has become a potential tool of the Ukrainian national movement, and which, therefore, called for a decisive battle for its Polonization. In a speech on 31 January 1935: "The Role of the Church must correspond to the Polish state, the reason of state, and thus be a factor conducive to the spirit of the raison d'état, involve citizens in the first row of the Polish State, and for the Lublin region must be a factor of Polonization. We strive to Polonize Orthodoxy." An important role was also played in military circles, demanding a more and more definitive solution to the problems of religious and civil Polonization in Chełm and Lublin, by force. In 1935, during a secret convention dedicated to the Ukrainian population, the Lublin civil administration openly carried on this conversation with the military, represented by General Mieczysław Smorawiński. The military demanded Polonization of the entire area between the Bug and
Wieprz The Wieprz (, ; ua, Вепр, Vepr) is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the country's ninth longest river, with a total length of 349 km and a catchment area of 10,497 km2, all within Poland. Its cour ...
rivers to reduce the Ukrainian problem in these areas "to the role of small issues", comparable to the issue of Czech settlers or Germans in
Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
in the district of Chełm. The convention concluded its findings in 35 points making up the program for further proceedings against the Ukrainian minority. Several of the points related to Orthodoxy, ordering its Polonization and preventing further expansion of its structures, including through the creation of non-permanent establishments. After the death of
Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...
, these trends increased in strength, which was reflected in the establishment of the Minorities Committee, which at the first meeting addressed the issue of the Orthodox Church and upheld the concept of its Polonization, and eventually created the conditions to move the population to Roman Catholicism as the best guarantee of being Polish. According to a document prepared by the Coordinating Committee at the Headquarters Corps District No. II in Lublin, Orthodox Christians were to be divided into three categories: people close to the transition to Catholicism, people forcibly converted to Orthodoxy already associated with that faith, and nationally conscious Ukrainians and Orthodox. If you were attached to the Orthodox Church, but were also Polish, the document recommended careful Polonization, so as not to alienate the people with the demand of immediate conversion. With regard to the conscious Ukrainians recommended while promoting the position that: "The Republic and the vast majority of its citizens refers to the construction of a Ukrainian State but outside the current borders of the Poland." In parallel was ordered: "The progress of this group of Ukrainians should by all possible means be hindered and ridiculed and to prevent the passage of influence of Eastern Galicia and Volyn."


Demolition of the Orthodox churches in Chełm

The formal reason for the demolition of the Orthodox churches would be to remove many unnecessary objects built by the Tsarists which were symbols of Russification and more symbolic than practical. The actual reason, officially not invoked, was the struggle against the Ukrainian movement, as most of the symbols of the church had been destroyed or transferred directly to the Catholic Church after 1918. Particular attention was paid to the closed churches in towns where a significant percentage of the population were Orthodox and actively wanted them to be reopened. Unlike previous waves of the recovery, the government took care to create the right atmosphere, inspiring a series of newspaper articles in support of affirmative action claiming that Orthodox churches may cause re-Russification or Ukrainianization in places of mixed ethnic composition. At the same time the government officially, through Prime Minister
Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski (; 9 June 1885, Gąbin – 31 August 1962 London) was a Polish physician,Waclaw Jedrzejewicz ''Piłsudski: A Life for Poland'' Hippocrene, 1982 Page 246 general, freemason and politician who served as Minister of I ...
, declared a willingness to have prudent policy towards national minorities. Demolition of the churches took place from May to July, 1938, with the demolitions performed by hired workers, prisoners, engineers or firemen. The Commander in Chief was General
Bruno Olbrycht Bruno Olbrycht ( nom de guerre: Olza; 6 October 1895 – 23 March 1951) was a soldier of the Austro-Hungarian Army and officer (later general) of the Polish Army both in the Second Polish Republic and postwar Poland. Born on 6 October 1895 in Sa ...
(replaced on May 21 by Colonel Marian Turkowski), and the new governor of Lublin, Major Jerzy Albin de Tramecourt, who was an overt supporter of Polonization. On January 20, 1938, Olbrycht provided detailed guidance: at a county level, guidance officers coming from local military units were to be appointed to head the field teams. Olbrycht also emphasized the importance of the ideological framing for the entire project, consistently emphasizing the validity of the Polonization actions. A special role was marked for the Society for the Development of Eastern Territories (Towarzystwu Rozwoju Ziem Wschodnich). In April of the same year, Olbrycht also presented a demand for the areas to be saturated with Roman Catholic priests. There were commonly cases of destruction and desecration of religious objects. In most cases the local population, intimidated, made no attempt to stop this, and only watched the demolitions. Only in a few cases did the faithful risk beatings by the police or get into brawls with workers. Once in court, this usually ended with the defeat of the local population. The breakthrough was a judgment about 30 people from the village of
Chmielek Chmielek is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łukowa, within Biłgoraj County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Łukowa, south-east of Biłgoraj, and south of the regional capital Lub ...
(where a church built in 1796 was destroyed) who were acquitted by the judge Stanisław Markowski. From this point on, investigations into people defending Orthodox property were redeemed. During the demolition of churches actions were made without clear criteria. In protest, in parliament July 21, 1938, Polish-Ukrainian politician Stepan Baran listed the cases of dismantling of active monasteries and sites that had been places of worship for centuries. Only five demolished churches had been attended by fewer than 1,000 faithful. The authorities also closed a number of non-permanent establishments.


Reactions to the actions

While the Orthodox population made no attempt to actively resist, they more often protested through legal means, using the representatives of the Ukrainian minority in parliament, and through memorials and complaints directly to the government and the
Marshal of the Sejm The Marshal of the Sejm , also known as Sejm Marshal, Chairman of the Sejm or Speaker of the Sejm ( pl, Marszałek Sejmu, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th ...
. The authors recounted the cases of church demolitions, and complained of acts of aggression on the part of some participants. The unambiguous attitude towards the government did not have much effect. President Mościcki only contacted Metropolitan Dionizy (Waledyński) at the beginning of April, 1938. From June 30 to July 2 there was an extraordinary congress of Orthodox Church clergy in Chełm, and they wrote a memorandum addressed to the Speakers of both parliamentary chambers, the MRRiOP and the president, and then chose a delegation of lay people to hand it to the correct people. On July 6, the Metropolitan once again sent a telegram to the Prime Minister and the Speaker
Edward Rydz-Śmigły Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły (11 March 1886 – 2 December 1941; nom de guerre ''Śmigły, Tarłowski, Adam Zawisza''), also called Edward Śmigły-Rydz, was a Polish politician, statesman, Marshal of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of Poland ...
, in which he asked for the destruction to stop. Ten days later, as actions to destroy churches continued, the Council of Bishops of the Polish Orthodox Church prepared another memorandum to the state authorities, who had been the recipients of the previous memorandum. They expressed deep sorrow about the government actions, solidarity with the people deprived of their Orthodox churches, and stated that they would not have thought that such a cruel and undeserved blow would fall on Christian churches in a Christian country, something which could be compared to what happened in Godless countries. A separate pastoral letter, the call was made for a three-day fast on the first days of August, it appealed for people to refrain from revenge and expressing admiration towards those who refused to convert. This text was confiscated by the authorities and the clergy who had read it during services were punished. Ukrainian politicians in parliament, Stepan Baran, Stepan Ivanovych Skrypnyk and Father Marcin Wołkow protested against the demolition of churches. The latter filed an application for the appointment of a committee of inquiry, which would examine the overall relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Polish government but the Speaker of Parliament said this was unconstitutional and did not put the proposal to a vote. Mr Baran in his speech, called for the cessation of pressure on Orthodox clergy on the use of the Polish language in preaching and teaching of religion, and called for the guarantee of freedom to profess the Orthodox faith. Ukrainian organizations protested, including those related to the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's ...
, with Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky issuing a pastoral letter on the case. This also was confiscated by the Polish administration. Protests poured in from other Orthodox Churches in the Ukraine and Russia. In July 1938, the latter group organized a demonstration of solidarity with the Polish Orthodox Christians in New York City and Winnipeg. Leftist Polish newspapers strongly condemned the activities of the State and the Catholic Church, with the PPS's People's Daily stating that by forcing Roman Catholicism on people and fighting against Orthodoxy people missed was the chance of living with Polish national minorities. On the pages of the Vilnius newspaper "Słowo", they strongly criticized the actions in Podlasie and Chełm. Conservative columnist Stanisław Mackiewicz called the action a "cardinal mistake" and claiming that its authors should appear before a state tribunal. The official authorities of the Catholic Church, in spite of many accusations of them inspiring, or at least supporting, the destruction of the churches, did not reply to objections posed to them, and only after the action stated that it had no connection with it. In terms of political success, the action failed to fulfil its tasks. The sense of danger, common in the Orthodox Church, had contributed to its consolidation and further strengthened the influence of the Ukrainian movement within it. There was a revival of nationalist sentiments among Ukrainians, strengthened contacts between representatives of the nationalities in Podlasie and Chełm and in Volhynia and Galicia. The Governor of Lublin even feared possible riots.


Results of the actions

The destruction of churches, unlike the previous recoveries of Orthodox properties, was brought to an end against the resistance of the faithful and the clergy. A report from the Governor of Lublin on July 16 indicated that at this point the authorities concluded there was no longer sufficient churches to deal with and started to mute the moods associated with the actions. The same document states that in the course of operations, 91 Orthodox churches, 26 prayer houses and 10 chapels were destroyed. In addition, four churches were adapted to be Roman Catholic churches, and one, dominated by the faithful who would not be removed from it, was later given to the Roman Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church was left with practically the minimum necessary of surviving churches, with 20 churches built after 1918 also having been destroyed. Many monuments of culture were destroyed including a church in Szczebrzeszyn which dated from the 16th century, one in
Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska ( la, Alba Ducalis) is a city in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975–1998). ...
from 1582, and one in
Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...
from 1589. This stopped thousands of the faithful from participating in Orthodox celebrations and some of them, against their will, had to formally adopt Catholicism or begin to participate in the rites celebrated in Roman Catholic churches. In 1938, the Orthodox Church lost a third of all their churches.


Actions in Volyn

In December 1937, contrary to the opinion of the regional governor Henryk Józewski, the action of forced conversion of local communities to Roman Catholicism in the
Volyn region Volyn Oblast ( uk, Воли́нська о́бласть, translit=Volýnsʹka óblastʹ; also referred to as Volyn or Lodomeria) is an oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. Its administrative centre is Lutsk. Kovel is the westernmost town ...
was launched, justified by the need to return Polish people "Russified" from the era of the partitions. The first settlement where the action was performed, was Hryńki, where a branch of the Border Protection Corps (Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza), after insulting the villagers portraits of dignitaries of state, received documents from 40 peasants, forbade residents from leaving Hryńki after sunset and surrounded the village. The end result of these actions was the passage from Orthodoxy to Catholicism of 572 peasants. Similar methods in the Volyn region continued until 1939 effecting ten thousand people. The Government consistently argued that all converts voluntarily changed their religion. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church maintained, however, that the majority of converts to Catholicism did so under the influence of blackmail and coercion, or because of conflicts with local Orthodox clergy. It is now known that those in charge of conversion made promises to give land to the peasants after changing to Catholicism, and argued that their ancestors belonged to the Catholic nobility, but they also used arrest and intimidation to convert those of Orthodox faith. Roman Catholic clergy actively participated in conversions to Catholicism, directly promoting their religion among the population and steadily expanding networks of parishes. Some parishes were established at the same time in areas where only small groups of Catholics lived, or did not have any faithful at all, especially on greenfield sites. The only strong existing rural centres of Catholicism in the Volyn region were in
Huta Huta (meaning "foundry" or "glass production shop" in Slavic languages) may refer to: Settlements Belarus Brest Oblast * Huta, Baranavichy District * Huta, Brest District * Huta, Hantsavichy District * Huta, Drahichyn District * Huta, Lyakhav ...
, Kuty, Wyrka, and Zasmyki.


Further Polonization actions up to mid-1939

Despite the completion of the emergency demolition of the churches, the administration continued steps to Polonize the Orthodox Church and reduce its influence. They were particularly active encouraging the Polish language to be used in sermons and pastor's informal contacts with the faithful in place of Ukrainian or Belarusian. The administration of the province of Lublin, despite a duty for governors to detail progress on Polonization, found that pushing the Polish language into churches was encountering serious difficulties, since the majority of the clergy and the Orthodox faithful clearly identified with Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian nationalities and spoke one of those three languages. In the first half of 1939 activities to promote the transition to Catholicism continued, but also the effects didn't go as well as planned. New guidelines for the continuation of Polonization activities argued for the dismissal of administrative positions of non-Polish origin, strict control of the Orthodox clergy, and actively supporting the development of Roman Catholic structures in areas populated by the Orthodox. The head of the conversion activities, Colonel Marian Turkowski, openly emphasized that the purpose of the activities was to confirm that "only Poles in Poland are full citizens and only they have something to say in Poland".


Unrealized action for restitution and Polonization

On February 23, 1939, the Lublin Provincial Office organized another conference, during which the representatives of the government, the army and local administration discussed policies on nationalities and religions. Governor Jerzy de Tramecourt declared the need to further increase Polish state ownership in the Lublin region by creating a nobility and settlement program, designed to break established historical clusters of Ukrainians. Ultimately, the region of Lublin and Chełm would be thoroughly cleansed of the Orthodox population and the population who strongly identifying with Ukrainian nationality. These actions were planned for the end of 1941 but were not implemented due to the outbreak of World War II.


The problem of cemeteries

The issue of membership of a church was related to the problem of cemeteries, especially those operating at idle or closed churches and Eastern Catholic cemeteries then used by the Orthodox Church. As in the case of churches, until 1938 there lacked a clear and lasting legal solution, and the key role was played by regional authorities. The MWRiOP, not wanting to provoke further conflict, was of the opinion that the cemeteries at recovered churches be made available to the Orthodox, even though they were now Catholic. Despite this, there were cases where local authorities did not respect this order and refused access to Orthodox cemeteries. The final solution adopted by the President of the Second Republic allowed the possibility of creating Orthodox cemeteries.


Bibliography

* M. Papierzyńska-Turek, ''Między tradycją a rzeczywistością. Państwo wobec prawosławia 1918–1939'', Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1989 * A. Mironowicz, ''Kościół prawosławny na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku'', Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, Białystok 2005, * K. Fotijew, A. Switicz, Православная церковь на Украине и в Польше в XX столетии 1917-1950 гг., Moskwa 1997, * G. Kuprianowicz, ''Akcja burzenia cerkwi prawosławnych na Chełmszczyźnie i południowym Podlasiu'', Prawosławna Diecezja Lubelsko-Chełmska, Chełm 2008, , , oraz je
wersja internetowa
* , ''Polityka państwa polskiego wobec zagadnienia ukraińskiego w latach 1930-1939'', Lublin 2003, wyd. Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, {{ISBN, 83-917615-4-1; * A. Kinasz, ''Proces likwidacji prawosławnych cerkwi na Lubelszczyźnie w latach 1937-1938 w świetle relacji świadków'' w: Studia Sandomierskie, Red. Bogdan Stanaszek, Sandomierz 2010 ISSN 0208-7626
Akcja burzenia cerkwi prawosławnych na Chełmszczyźnie i południowym Podlasiu


See also

* Partial list of Orthodox churches destroyed as part of the recovery of churches in the Second Republic Eastern Orthodoxy in Poland Ukrainian diaspora in Poland Polish Orthodox churches Second Polish Republic