PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marek, Pavel
TI  - Help of the Russian Ortodox Church to Eastern Slovakia in 1955-1968
DP  - 2012 Dec 11
TA  - Historica Olomucensia
PG  - 197--219
VI  - 43
IP  - 3
IS  - 18039561
AB  - The article analyses the circumstances of the arrival and activities of 17 Russian Orthodox priests in Eastern Slovakia in the second half of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. They were sent to Czechoslovakia on demand of leading personalities of the Orthodox Church with an approval of the party and state authorities to help the local Church to calm the situation after a violent liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church and an attempt to convert the clergy and population to the Orthodox Church. The East Slovakia Orthodox Church suffered from the lack of priests and the help of Soviet clergy from the Carpatho-Ukraine was intended to overcome this deficit. After a five year activity the mission of Russian orthodox priests in Eastern Slovakia was complete. Most of them returned to the eparchy of Uzhgorod convinced that no more demand for a new mission would be made, while Czechoslovak authorities wanted some priests to stay, acquire a Czechoslovak citizenship and live there permanently. The plan was successfully realized. One part of those who stayed became leading members of the Orthodox Church, the other one, however, left it to join the restored Greek Catholic Church in 1968.