SOCIAL HISTORY SOURCES OF THE GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA (1918-1939)

The Czechoslovakia interwar territory had two Greek-Catholic eparchies - of Mukachevo and Presov. For centuries they were the centers of conservation of Slavonic Church liturgy, of custody over the Ruthenian population of Transcarpathia and Presov Region. The main documentary sources of this issue are the materials of the archives and libraries in Slovakia and Ukraine. Among them are documents, periodicals, statistical data. The basis of the study is the archival documents of the diocesan office and assembly materials, separate collections of funds relating to boarding schools. The first allow understanding the eparchy mechanisms in the implementation of social assistance; assembly materials also help to establish the relationship between the eparchial institutions and public authorities and their mutual coordination on the issues of social payments and general help among the Rusnak population. The second large group of research sources is Greek-Catholic periodicals which show the specific view on the social problems that the eparchy authorities tried to solve in the 1920s-1930s. Of course, Greek-Catholic periodicals imply not only publications that the eparchies published, but also journals and magazines edited by priests or the members of the eparchy administration. The basis of the study becomes the Dushpastyr' [Pastor] journal (1927-1933), which was a common organ of Presov and Mukachevo eparchies; the day periodicals of Presov Eparchy Rusjke slovo and the newspaper Svoboda of the Christian People's Party, whose owner was Augustin Voloshin. The other publications were also used, they greatly complement the existing material. There is some information on the social activities of eparchy boards in other publications: Al'manakh obshchestva Trezvosti, Blagovestnik, Mesyatseslov, Molodaya Rus', Nedelya, Podkarpatskaya Rus' and so on. It is necessary to use the source criticism of the periodicals including their owners, the biography of their editors, their conceptual orientation, audience etc. The third group of materials consists of statistical sources which greatly complement the existing archival and documentary material of interwar periodicals. There are three types of specific religious sources: 1) schematyzms which contain information about priests and their positions; 2) reports, statistical information of schools, boarding schools and orphanages which contain information about the number of managers and students; 3) accounting books of funds for widows and orphans, priests pensioners, priest orphans which contain information about the number of the needy in the eparchies and payments in their favor. In general, this kind of sources will allow to study the social history of the interwar Czechoslovak state comprehensively, using the comparative method to test the validity of evidence in different media. In addition, this approach will check the validity of the sources.