After annexing Western Ukraine in the autumn of 1939, the Soviet authorities launched a wide-scale attack on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Stalinist regime viewed the church as a serious obstacle to the implementation of its policy of Sovietization in the region. Upon returning in 1944, the USSR leadership directed efforts towards the complete liquidation of this denomination, which firmly supported the idea of Ukraine’s independence and had significant influence on the society of the region. At the Cynod of Lviv, held on March 8–10, 1946, the “abolition” of the union of the Galician Metropolis with Rome and the “reunion” with the Russian Orthodox Church were proclaimed. This act was accompanied by the arrest of Greek Catholic clergy, monks, and laypeople.
The suffering endured by the UGCC in the so-called “prison of nations,” the Soviet Union, the major events along the thorny path to the revival of the Church, the witness of the clergy and Greek Catholic faithful, were first highlighted in the museum exhibition “UGCC – A Time of Trials,” which opened in April 2018. The artifacts collected by museum researchers in 2019–2021 were later presented in the space of the project “Ukraine. Unfinished War...,” including personal materials of Father Ivan Kubay.
Among the items carefully hidden in the family collection, a special place is held by the altar cross from the early 20th century, which was used in the pastoral service of Father Ivan.
After graduating from the Theological Academy in Lviv in 1943 and receiving priestly ordination, he served in the Stanislav region (now Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast) until 1946. With the arrival of Soviet power, avoiding the persecution of the NKGB and pressure to sign up for Orthodoxy, Father Ivan and his family constantly changed their places of residence and had to work in various agricultural jobs. Under close surveillance by security services, he continued to secretly carry out priestly duties, conducted underground novitiates, and served numerous faithful, administering the Holy Sacraments. In the 1950s, his house was searched repeatedly, and he was arrested several times by the KGB. After his arrest in 1956, he was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital, from which he was released as a second-degree invalid “with the intervention of the KGB.” However, he did not betray his convictions. As his health permitted, he continued to perform his priestly duties underground, delivering God’s word and holding liturgies in his home chapel. Having endured unimaginable physical and moral torture, Father Ivan managed to preserve his loyalty to the Church and his people in his heart.
Thanks to the unwavering resilience of the clergy, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church became a beacon for the faithful during the war years. It survived the official liquidation, operated underground, and for almost half a century was the largest repressed Christian community in the world, while simultaneously being one of the greatest organizers of Ukrainian national resistance against the Soviet totalitarian system.