THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE MIDST OF THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917-1918

The political events in the wake of the February revolution of 1917 in Russia resulted in new, independent national political entities. Ukraine went through the three-stage political metamorphosis, realized by three different governments: socialist, conservative and nationalist. Socio-political transformations also affected religion. The Orthodox Church was exposed to numerous reforming ambitions and aspirations. The main idea was to make the Church national and to grant it an autocephalous status - a problem that the particular Ukrainian revolutionary governments were trying to solve in their own ways. It is worthwhile to analyse the testimonies of the time, which illustrate the engagement of the Orthodox clergy in the processes mentioned above, and the role that the clergy played in the formation of a new Ukrainian statehood.