FROM THE DUBOVICHI LIFE: REPRESSIONS AGAINST THE CHURCH IN THE 1920-1930'S.
Authors: Ivanchenko Lesya 
Published: June 2020

In the article, the author reveals fragments of the study about repressions of the 1920s and 1930s against the churches, as an institution of society, against the clergy, church services, active parishioners of one of the settlements in Sumy Region(Dubovichi village). Self-identification and peaceful living under the laws of honor in the socialist regime led to the destruction of employed citizens and clergy who lived by vocation and by traditional moral principles. After all, it was they - conscious citizens, intellectuals, who "threaten" the terrorist plot of the Bolshevik authorities on the territory of Ukraine.

Special attention was to the citizens who supported Tikhonovsk and Ukrainian autocephalous Orthodox churches. The parishioners of these churches were in principle affirmative. "Tikhonovtsi" decided religious uncompromising, "autocephalous" were nationalistic. Those and others did not perceive the Bolsheviks. Both opposed the political regime. Everyone who was in contact or was attached to these groups was prosecuted and arrested with special severity. Under the repressions were relatives and neighbors. Blackmail of single persons and family, voluminous and falsification documents, taking hostages. That was happening with all who was not controlled during the formation of the Soviet power. Over the 50 people from Dubovichi village and their families fell under the pressure of repressions. Most of them were sentenced to death. Just few of them returned from exile and settled in distant places from their native village.

Dubovichi village has a centuries-long history. Best known it is in the religious environment through the icon of Dubovytsi's Mother of God. The miraculous image of the Virgin was discovered in the middle of the 17th century. And the glory about it spread far beyond the then Russian empire. Church leaders from Kiev, from Chernigov gathered at the procession during the celebrations of 1861. The pilgrimage to the icon in Dubovich was round-the-year. Copies from the list of the Virgin Mary Dubovitskaya were in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Kyiv. Information about the icon was printed in church calendars and metropolitan directories of pilgrims. The grand stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin in 1777 in the center of the village, it was the pease of architectural art that was rare in the countryside. As evidenced by foreign sources, the parish church was kind of fortress. It was surrounded by a brick fence with four towers in corners. The entrance to the churchyard was through the gates that were under the bell. There were burials around the temple. Marble monuments were raised on the graves. Icons in the temple were in different kyots, precious stones. Church property included a number of priest clothing, silverware. In the village there were three temples. This provided the opportunity for the parish to have six priests, several clerks and psalms in the state. All were destroyed until 1940, despite the architectural value of the builders and the ancients.

Dubovichi parish numbered more than three thousand people at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was glorified by the numerous, beautiful choir, active citizens. The church library was more than 2000 volumes. The priests performed not only the need. Archpriest Gusakovsky was the head of refuge. The village choir numbered more than 60 people. There was a spiritual orchestra, a theater group, a hut-reading room, a rural school and a parochial school, and a folk school in the village. Also there was paramedic station, veterinarian, pharmacy. The hospital unit numbered up to 10 beds.

Tolerance and high moral consciousness were typical for the people of Dubovichi. Not only Orthodox lived in the village . Archival documents indicate that the daughter of the priest was offended with the Catholic. Jews lived in Dubovichi. The social group was represented. There were Gypsies among the participants of the school. Those were posterity of that who survived and took good place in life of theatre.

Able to analyze falsifications of the campaign to destroy the Dubovichi parish, the destruction of church buildings- works of architectural art. Information from directories, archival documents and old people's buildings allows us to reconstruct conditionally events of those times. The author for the first time highlights this page of the Dubovichi life. As well as information from recently declassified documents from archives of higher authorities on the repressed residents of Dubovichi village. Human losses, disadvantaged families, tales of reletives about Soviet Union. All this make a mosaic of the historical stratum of our country. The coverage of this problem somehow outlines the massive crimes of Soviet politics in the 1920's and 1930's. It is a tribute to those who sacredly keep memories of the repressed.