National Memory Institute and SBU open exhibition on UGCC liquidation

Participants in the exhibition opening. Photo: UGCC website

On March 6, 2026, an open-air documentary exhibition titled Empire Against the Church was ceremonially opened on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv. The display is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the 1946 Lviv Council, at which the decision was made to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). The project was organized by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University, with the participation of the Sectoral State Archive of the SBU. This was reported by the UGCC website.

Among those present at the opening were UGCC head Sviatoslav Shevchuk, DESS chief Viktor Yelensky, UINM head Oleksandr Alferov, and SBU Archive Director Andriy Kohut. The exhibition is intended to condemn the repressions against the UGCC, yet the speeches delivered by the high-ranking guests at the opening sounded like a rather peculiar acknowledgment of their own methods of dealing with “undesirable” confessions today.

UGCC Head Sviatoslav Shevchuk, surrounded by DESS and SBU officials, shared what he described as an important theological observation: Stalin’s repressive machine failed to destroy the UGCC, “because our people and our Church carried the faith in their hearts.” According to him, similar processes against the UGCC can now be seen in the occupied territories. He made no mention of whether he sees any parallels in the actions of the Ukrainian authorities against the UOC.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that DESS had drawn parallels between the liquidation of the UGCC and the present day.

Read also