Holy Spirit Skete of the Pochaev Lavra Under Archbishop of Ternopol Palladiy (Kaminsky)

Abstract

The subject of this study is the history of the last years of the existence of the Pochaev Holy Spirit Skete in the Soviet period, the circumstances of its closure and the direct activities of Archbishop Palladiy (Kaminsky), who acted as a fearless defender of this monastery. On the example of the Pochaev skete, one can trace some features of the religious policy of the Communist Party in the Ukrainian SSR, where Soviet power was established only in 1939, which could not have a special effect on church-state relations. The source base consists of quarterly and annual reports of the commissioners of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ternopil region, which we find in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the State Archive of the Ternopil region. Thanks to the analysis of archival materials, we come to the conclusion about the destructive policy of the Soviet government aimed at combating the Russian Church in the territory of the Ternopil region. The main object of the above-mentioned policy was the Pochaev Lavra and its Dukhovskoy skete. The Soviet authorities were unable to achieve the complete liquidation of Orthodox monasteries in the Ternopil diocese thanks to the diplomatic talent of Archbishop Palladiy, who paid for it with another transfer to another department of the Russian Orthodox Church.