Bystrytska E. Eastern Vatican Policy in the Context of the Holy See Relationships with Russia and the USSR (1878-1964).

The dissertation is a complex historical and religious research which deals with the analysis of the peculiarities of eastern Vatican policy through the study of the development of the Holy See diplomatic relations with Russia and the USSR. The work focuses on the evolution of unionistic Catholic Church doctrine, the place and role of Greek-Catholic Church, in particular the role of its head-Metropolitan A. Sheptytsky in Catholicism propagation in Russia. Special attention was paid to the tsarist and Soviet government policy as for the Latin and Eastern-rite Catholics. The investigation proved the interrelation of foreign policy tasks of government institutions and the orientation of religious policy, which were accompanied by the usage of certain means for its realization. Such interdependence was traced in the tsarist government policy before and during the World War I as well as in the policy of the Soviet government in the period of "countries of popular democracy" bloc creation after the World War II. The investigation states that in the government system of the Russian Empire and the USSR coordinates the Russian Orthodox Church was used as Catholicism deterrent to solve the tasks of home and foreign policy.