The resistance of the archbishop of Lviv and Ternopil Palladiy (Kaminsky) to the closure of monasteries in Western Ukraine at the beginning of the Khrushchev persecutions (1958-1960)

During the period of the Khrushchev persecutions, one of the most important directions of the state policy of the USSR was the active influence on the management activities of the Moscow Patriarchate with the goal of total control over church leadership and the implementation of decisions contrary to the interests of the Church. On the ground, the authorities sought to implement these decisions by the hands of bishops in order to undermine their authority in the eyes of believers. One of the organizers of church resistance in Western Ukraine at the beginning of the persecutions of 1958-1960 became the Archbishop of Lviv and Ternopil Palladiy (Kaminsky). Contrary to the orders of civil authority and church leadership, the Archbishop Palladiy prevented the closure of the Kremenetsky Nunnery and the Dukhovsky Skete of the Pochaev Monastery in the Ternopil Oblast. The struggle of monastics and laity lasted for several months and became a big problem for republican and allied bodies of state power. However, in late July - early August 1959, the Kremenetsky Nunnery and the Lavra monastery were closed. Archbishop Palladiy was removed in May 1960 from the occupied department and transferred to the Orenburg diocese. The authors of the article investigate the forms and methods of resistance of the highest church hierarchy to the anti-religious actions of the authorities on the basis of archival documents first introduced into the scientific circulation.