Hromova V.

Punishment for faith: persecution of the priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Dmytro Karpenko

Section: The person in historical context

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the biography of Dmytro Karpenko, a priest in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, using documents and criminal cases kept at the Sectoral State Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the State Archives of Chernihiv Oblast. The article focuses on the priest's arrest, conviction, and indications that his criminal convictions were fabricated in the 1920s and 1930s. The author examined the accusations levied against the clergyman and determined the reasons for his criminal trial. It was possible to look into the accused's civic standing and political beliefs based on his evidence. The precise date of D. Karpenko's passing was determined by examining the research materials and extrajudicial decisions. Methodology and methods. The author employed both unique historical methods – historical, comparison, and modelling to reconstruct events – and general scientific methods (systematic analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction) to accomplish the research purpose. The methods of source analysis were applied to the processing of the archival materials, including the establishment of the location and time of the document's origin as well as the verification and classification of sources. The anthropological approach was the main approach for this study. The biographical method was used to reconstruct the biography of priest D. Karpenko, and his civic standing was ascertained through critical analysis. Conclusions. The biographical data regarding D. Karpenko's life and career was thoroughly examined using archive materials, some of which were previously unpublished in scientific journals. He was arrested six times and imprisoned five times between 1926 and 1937. Criminal proceedings against D. Karpenko were initiated primarily because of his involvement in the Ukrainian church organization, his active civic position on the development of an independent Ukraine, and his agitation of the rural populace regarding the widespread use of the Ukrainian language, including during church services. The conclusion regarding the criminal case's falsification can be made based on the differences in the witness and priest testimonies, the witnesses' repeated use of the same words and sentences, and the absence of evidence supporting counterrevolutionary activities. No anti-Soviet books or letters that might have discredited Karpenko in front of the Soviet authorities were discovered during the searches. The priest was shot dead in 1938 in Chernihiv by the decision of the NKVD troika.

Keywords: priest, UAOC, Chernihiv region, arrest, interrogation protocol, DPU, NKVD

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2023.01.131     Citation

• Hromova V. (T.H. Shevchenko National University "Chernihiv Collegium", Chernihiv, bagmet_z@ukr.net) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9991-6814

Cite:
Hromova V. (2023). Punishment for faith: persecution of the priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Dmytro Karpenko. From archives of VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB, ( 1 (59)) 131-146. (In Ukrainian). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2023.01.131

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