Historica Olomucensia

"Operation 100". A contribution to the history of the Greek-Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia after WWII.

The study concentrates on the analysis of the "Operation 100", which was drafted by the communist Czech and Slovak state and party authorities in 1951 in the connection to the attempts for consolidation of the situation in Eastern Slovakia after dissolving the Greek Catholic Church. It was believed by the organisers that after the liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church (1950), the fusion of two Churches would be made very quickly and the believers would be transferred to the successor Orthodox Church. The reality of the years 1950-1951 was, however, different and they needed to prevent a scandal. One of the solutions was a forced resettlement of all the priests (without reference to their age, health condition, or civil profession), who rejected to convert to the Orthodox Church. The "State Church office" in Prague in cooperation with their colleagues in the Bratislava branch drafted in mid-1951 a plan called "Operation 100", on the basis of which the priests were supposed to be moved to the Czech lands, especially the border areas, with their families (originally about 100 priests). The aim was to incorporate them in the Czech society as workers. The plan was implemented in 1951-1952. The study analyses the conditions, course of events and the aftermath of the resettlement and hints at the circumstances of the 1956 revision of the persecution.