THE LIBERATION OF METROPOLITAN ANDREY SHEPTYTSKY FROM RUSSIAN CAPTIVITY IN 1917

Abstract

In the scientific article, the author reveals the process of repatriation of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky from the Russian captivity in 1917. The main purpose of the article was to analyse the activities of the clergyman from the moment of his release in March 1917 to his return to Lviv in September 1917. The research was carried out on the basis of the materials from the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv and the State Archives of the Chernivtsi Region

At the beginning of the First World War, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was deported from the territories of the Austria-Hungary which was occupied by the Russian Empire. The reasons for Sheptytsky’s dismissal in 1917 were the desire of the Russian Provisional Government to release the orthodox priest,

1. Ryzhkov from the imprisonment in Austria-Hungary. Thus, Russia exchanged Metropolitan Sheptytsky for
2. Ryshkov. On the eve of the exchange, A. Sheptytsky traveled to Kyiv, where he met with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests and the representatives of the local Ukrainian elite. In addition, the metropolitan participated in the church council in Petrograd (May, 1917), the final decisions of which he sought to approve in Rome. The route of the clergyman’s trip to his to his homeland crossed the territories of the Russian Empire, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. Italy didn’t allow A. Sheptytsky to enter its territory he went to Vienna, and sometime later to Lviv.

According to the author, the metropolitan set himself the goal of stabilizing the situation of his church. At the same time, the revolutionary events created the opportunities for the development of the ecumenical activity and the development of the Greek Catholic Church in Russia. These tasks had become the main goals of Andrey Sheptytsky’s further activities until the end and after the World War I.

Key words: Andrey Sheptytsky, UGCC, repatriation, World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government, ecumenism, Nikolai Ryzhkov.