Masliy O. Woman Monastic Communities of the UGCC in Halychyna (1946-1989).

The thesis is dedicated to the analysis on the broad source material women's monastic communities of UGCC in Galicia (1946-1989). The process of UGCC's liquidation by Soviet authorities in pseudo-synod in Lviv in 1946 is shown; one of the consequents of this process was closing of monasteries between 1946 and 1950. The liquidation of monasteries was organized in a gradual way and had 4 stages: gathering information about nuns; imposing high taxes on monastic communities; "enlarging" and ultimately eliminating monasteries. The nuns were forced to leave monastic cloisters and change the monastic clothes into secular clothing. The study reveals the activities of women's monastic communities in conditions of illegality, which were under constant supervision of the Council on Religious Affairs by the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Committee for State Security (KGB) during the period of persecution of the Church. Special force of the USSR used a variety of means to monitor activities of persecuted Church: room eavesdropping, "undercover" work with nuns, and strict control of incoming and outgoing correspondence, etc. The activities of nuns in the "catacomb" period of the UGCC and its constituent institutions are traced. The features of the internal structure of monasteries, education of new members, management system, and communication with higher Superiors of the Western world in difficult realities of Soviet life are cleared. Leaving in illegality, the nuns showed their loyalty to the monastic rule, followed their monastic constitution and monastic vows, and also took care for the spiritual life, organizing days of spiritual renewal. The internal structure of monastic communities was kept: each monastery had its Superior, according to needs of each monastery general meetings were organized for an election of a Higher Superior; the nuns took care for new vocations. In 1953-1989, 472 people came to the illegal Greek-Catholic monasteries, mostly from families, which were directly related to the prohibited Church. The older nuns educated young members, teaching them the basic elements of monastic life.