A SITUATION OF THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN THE LATE STALINISM PERIOD AND ITS REFLECTION IN THE PRESS OF THE TIME

The study aims at chronological and logical reconstruction of the situation the Transcarpathian Reformed (Calvinists) and the Transcarpathian Reformed Church found themselves in the period after the Soviet troops entered the region until Stalin’s death. It shows the ambivalent and at the same time chaotic situation the confession was in after the territory was annexed to the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it analyses the authorities’ narrative on the issue in the local media of the time. The narrative was the new regime’s political propaganda campaign that tried to legitimize its own ideology in the language of the region’s Reformed.

Research methodology is based on the analysis of little-known and unknown archive sources of the Synodal Archives of the Reformed Church of Hungary, State Archives of the Transcarpathian Region, Central State Archives of the Highest Bodies of Power and Administration of Ukraine, State Security Service of Ukraine Administration in the Transcarpathian region, as well as recollections of participants of those events and articles in the local media.

The scientific novelty of the paper lies in the fact that in the Ukrainian ecclesiastical history researches the problem area of the Transcarpathian Reformed was studied in a rather partial, fragmented way, touching upon separate questions, not in a chronological order, though the history of the Protestants as a collective theme, or of the Baptists as the Protestant confession with the largest organization, acquired broad attention of the researchers. The research was guided by historical chronology and covered the evolution of the Soviet regime’s anticlerical political propaganda campaign in the local media.

It has been revealed that after the Soviet troops entered Transcarpathia, the church structure of the Reformed suffered significant damages; moreover, 20–25 % of the congregation’s male population was deported to the so-called three-day salvage work. The troubled situation was intensified by the fact that the state registration of the Reformed was not approved by the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults (CARC) in 1946; instead, it wanted to assimilate the Reformed into the Evangelical Christian-Baptists’ (ECB) organization. It also turned out that in late 1946 CARC was not aware of the organizational structure, territorial division, as well as the number of believers of the Reformed. After it came to light, the community’s complete inspection was initiated followed by bureaucratic suspicion and the invitation of the KGB to help in the case of head Reformed Church pastors. After the KGB’s report the Soviet regime did not strive for the union of the Reformed and ECB, it let them be a separate confession, however this was the time when a wave of arrests of the Reformed Church pastors started. As a result, CARC wanted a man to head the Reformed who would be ready to compromise, serve the interests of the state authorities, as well as deviate from the traditional synodal-presbyter principle and organizational structure. In December 1949, Gencsy Béla was appointed head of the church. He behaved loyally (from the point of view of the state authorities) and at the same time made every effort to keep unregistered parishes from elimination.

Transcarpathia Oblast, Transcarpathian Reformed Church, Сhurch history, Soviet regime, the Reformed (Calvinists).