Shumilo V. The True Orthodox (Catacomb) Church in the Chernihiv Region in the 1920s and 1930s.

In the dissertation research on the basis of a wide range of analyzed scientific investigations and sources, most of which were first introduced into scientific circulation, it was concluded that there is a little-studied powerful church-public movement "True Orthodox Church", which covered the territory of the former Russian Empire after the 1917 revolution and had an unprecedented number of followers in the Chernihiv diocese in the 1920s and 1930s. The history of the Chernihiv diocese of this period needs the attention of researchers. Sources such as the investigative cases of TOC members persecuted by the Soviet authorities, memoirs of eyewitnesses of the then repressive processes, and personal archives of some TOC followers were introduced into scientific circulation. The basic ecclesiological and civil principles that formed the worldview of the TOC members were established, which influenced the large-scale departure of the clergy and believers of the Chernihiv diocese from the official church and their rethinking of some canonical aspects of ecclesiology. The huge repressive process of the 1920s and 1930s was revealed and analyzed, which concerns the main figures in the history of the Chernihiv diocese and the TOC movement of the period under study: Damaskina (Tsedryk), Pakhomiy (Kedrov), Alipiy (Yakovenko), Lavrentiy (Proskura), Georgy (Smelnytsky), Smaragd (Chernetsky), etc. The ideological basis of these persecutions has been established, which is connected with the creation of the so-called "Soviet church" on the territory of the USSR. The system of TOC communities in Chernihiv region is defined, the process of destruction of TOC of Chernihiv region carried out by the Soviet authorities and the departure of those of its survivors to the underground, and thus the birth of the Catacomb Church, is described. Keywords: True Orthodox Church, persecution of the Church in the USSR, Chernihiv Diocese, Catacomb Church.