By the eighteenth century, the Eastern Catholic Church of the Kyivan tradition — then commonly known as the Uniate Church — had reached a period of great expansion across the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with thousands of parishes, numerous monasteries, and millions of faithful.
The partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth dramatically changed the political and ecclesiastical landscape of Eastern Europe. The Commonwealth was partitioned three times—in 1772, 1793, and 1795 — by Russia, Prussia, and the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the Third Partition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist as an independent state.
For the Uniate Church, the consequences were profound. Large territories inhabited by its faithful in present-day Ukraine and Belarus came under Russian rule. Galicia was incorporated into the Habsburg Monarchy following the First Partition in 1772. Bukovina was subsequently incorporated into the Habsburg Monarchy.
From this point, the Church developed along two very different paths.
Under the Russian Empire
Under Empress Catherine II, the Uniate Church came under increasing pressure from the Russian imperial authorities.
Large numbers of parishes were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Basilian monasteries were closed or placed under severe restrictions, and the Church’s hierarchical structures were progressively dismantled.
Following the Third Partition in 1795, Catherine II abolished the Uniate eparchies under Russian rule except Polotsk.
Metropolitan Teodosii Rostotsky, Metropolitan of Kyiv, was prevented from freely exercising his jurisdiction and was required to reside in St. Petersburg. He remained there until his death in 1805.
The situation improved temporarily after the accession of Emperor Paul I in 1796. His government pursued a more tolerant policy toward the Uniates, and in 1798 the eparchies of Brest and Lutsk were restored.
Under Emperor Alexander I, the Church continued to exist but remained under close imperial supervision. Separate administrative structures were established for Uniate affairs, and provisions were made for the education of its clergy.
One of the most important hierarchs of this period was Yosafat Ihnatii Bulhak, who became the last head of the Uniate Church in the Russian Empire before its suppression. He died in 1838.
Yosyf Semashko and the Road to Suppression
One of the central figures in the final suppression of the Uniate Church in the Russian Empire was Yosyf Semashko, the son of a Uniate priest.
In 1827, Semashko prepared a memorandum outlining a program that would gradually separate the Uniate Church from Roman Catholic structures and prepare it for incorporation into the Russian Orthodox Church.
His proposals included reorganizing the Church’s administration and clergy formation, restricting the Basilian Order, and removing Latin influences from liturgical practice.
In 1829, Semashko was consecrated Bishop of Mstsislau and became an increasingly important figure in the reorganization of the Uniate Church.
Under Emperor Nicholas I, imperial pressure intensified. The structures of the Basilian Order were progressively dismantled, monasteries were closed or reorganized, and the independence of the Uniate Church was steadily weakened.
In 1831, the Russian government transferred the important Basilian monastery at Pochaiv to the Russian Orthodox Church, using the alleged support of its monks for the Polish November Uprising of 1830–1831 as the justification.
After Metropolitan Yosafat Bulhak died in 1838, the imperial authorities moved rapidly toward the final elimination of the Uniate Church.
Clergy who resisted incorporation into the Russian Orthodox Church faced intense pressure, including removal from their parishes, imprisonment, and exile.
The Synod of Polotsk
On February 12, 1839, Bishops Yosyf Semashko, Vasyl Luzhynsky, and Antonii Zubko gathered with clergy in Polotsk.
The gathering, known as the Synod of Polotsk, adopted an act repudiating the Union of Brest and requesting incorporation into the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian imperial government subsequently approved and enforced the incorporation.
The events of 1839 effectively ended the institutional existence of the Uniate Church throughout most of the Russian Empire.
One important exception remained: the Kholm Eparchy and the Greek Catholic communities of the Kholm region and Podlachia. They survived until 1875, when the Russian imperial authorities suppressed the Union there as well and incorporated its parishes into the Russian Orthodox Church.
A Different Path under Habsburg Rule
The situation developed very differently in Galicia under the Habsburg Monarchy.
Following the First Partition in 1772, Galicia became part of the Habsburg domains. The government of Empress Maria Theresa introduced reforms intended to improve the legal and educational position of Eastern Catholic clergy.
In 1774, the Uniate Church in the Habsburg lands was officially designated the Greek Catholic Church, and its clergy were granted rights and privileges comparable to those of the Roman Catholic clergy.
That same year, Maria Theresa established the Barbareum, a Greek Catholic seminary in Vienna for the education of clergy.
These reforms were continued under Emperor Joseph II, who further developed theological education and reorganized ecclesiastical institutions.
Thus, while the Greek Catholic Church was progressively dismantled in the Russian Empire, it survived and developed in the Habsburg lands.
In Galicia, the Church would become an increasingly important institution of religious, educational, cultural, and social life.
The partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth therefore marked a decisive turning point in the history of the Church. A large ecclesial community that had once extended across much of the Commonwealth was divided by imperial borders and subjected to fundamentally different religious policies.
In the Russian Empire, the Church was progressively deprived of its institutions and eventually suppressed. Under Habsburg rule, it survived and developed. These contrasting experiences would profoundly shape the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Key:
1772 — The First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Galicia comes under Habsburg rule, while territories inhabited by Uniate faithful are annexed by the Russian Empire.
1774 — Under Empress Maria Theresa, the designation “Greek Catholic” is officially introduced in the Habsburg lands, and the Barbareum is established in Vienna.
1793 — The Second Partition brings extensive territories of Right-Bank Ukraine under Russian rule.
1795 — The Third Partition ends the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Catherine II suppresses the Uniate eparchies under Russian rule except Polotsk.
1798 — Under Emperor Paul I, the eparchies of Brest and Lutsk are restored.
1827 — Yosyf Semashko prepares a program that would lead toward the incorporation of the Uniate Church into Russian Orthodoxy.
1829 — Yosyf Semashko is consecrated Bishop of Mstsislau.
1831 — The Russian government transfers Pochaiv Monastery from the Basilians to the Russian Orthodox Church.
1838 — Yosafat Ihnatii Bulhak dies.
February 12, 1839 — The Synod of Polotsk repudiates the Union of Brest and requests incorporation into the Russian Orthodox Church; the Russian imperial government subsequently enforces the suppression.
1875 — The Kholm Eparchy and the remaining Uniate communities of the Kholm region and Podlachia are incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church.
