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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2022
By introducing different types of sources—published documents on Vatican's Eastern policy, archival material of the Soviet governmental agencies, egodocuments of local ecclesiastical leaders—this article tries to identify the role Lithuanian subjects have played in the field of Vatican-USSR relations during the first half of Pope John Paul II's pontificate. The research reveals that, since the end of 1970s, issues pertaining to the Lithuanian Catholic Church were considered priority agenda items—both within the halls of the Vatican and in the central government offices of the Soviet regime. An analysis of available sources illustrates also that interrelated issues of the boundaries of the Vilnius Archdiocese and the question of its further administration constituted the most acute node of issues during the period under review. The Soviet regime was the most interested in focusing on these issues, as it hoped thereby to dispel any mutual sympathies between Lithuanian Catholics and the Polish pope, put a stop to the emerging cooperation between Catholics in Lithuania and Poland, and bring an end to the politically costly case of Bishop Steponavičius, who by then had become a symbol of the Lithuanian Catholic Church's resistance. Suppressing of any attempts of the Holy See to be represented at commemoration of important events in Lithuania's history was yet another highly complicated task for the Soviet authorities.
1 Weigel, George, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (New York: Harper Collins, 2005)Google Scholar; Luxmoore, Jonathan and Babiuch, Jolanta, The Vatican and the Red Flag: The Struggle for the Soul of Eastern Europe (London: G. Chapman, 2000)Google Scholar.
2 For example, American historian Bernd Schäfer has attempted to show that the Vatican's capacity to change the rules of the political process in Poland and within the socialist bloc overall was limited and that only changes within the Soviet Union itself opened the way for a greater role of Vatican diplomacy. See Schäfer, “The Catholic Church and the Cold War's end in Europe: Vatican Ostpolitik and Pope John Paul II, 1985–1989,” in Europe and the End of the Cold War: A Reappraisal, ed. Frederic Bozo et al. (Oxford: Routledge 2008), 64–77.
3 Within this context, one of the few mentionable exceptions is the case study of Slovakia: Emilia Hrabowec, “L'Ostpolitik di Giovanni Paolo II e la Slovacchia (1978–1989),” in Incorrupta monumenta Ecclesiam defendunt: studi offerti a mons. Sergio Pagano, prefetto dell’ Archivio Segreto Vaticano, ed. Andreas Gottsmann, Pierantonio Piatti, Andreas E. Rehberg (Citta del Vaticano: Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, 2018), 267–290.
4 Corley, Felix, “Soviet Reaction to the Election of Pope John Paul 11,” Religion, State and Society 22, no. 1 (1994): 37–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Anderson, John, Religion, state and politics in the Soviet Union and successor states (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.
5 Some of the more authoritative reviews published after the collapse of the USSR include: Andrea Riccardi, Il Vaticano e Mosca (1940–1990) (Roma: Laterza 1992); and Dennis J. Dunn, The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, patriarchs, Tsars and Commissars (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
6 Many details about the Soviet KGB's operations against the Vatican have been presented in Vasili Mitrokhin's study КГБ против Ватикана (The KGB vs. Vatican City), available in the Wilson Center Digital Archive at http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110705.
7 La politica del dialogo: le Carte Casaroli sull'Ostpolitik vaticana, ed. Giovanni Barberini (Bologna: Il Mulino 2008). Hereafter cited as La politica del dialogo.
8 Agostino Casaroli, Il martirio della pazienza. La Santa Sede e i paesi comunisti (1963–1989) (Torino: Einaudi, 2000).
9 Col. A. Kireeyev, Chief of the USSR KGB PGU Unit 12, to Division 1st of the LSSR KGB, with attachment, November 10, 1978, LYA, K-35, 2/298: 219. LYA refers to the Lietuvos ypatingasis archyvas [Lithuanian Special Archives].
10 Hrabowec, “L'Ostpolitik,” 272.
11 Corley, “Soviet Reaction,” 43.
12 LCVA, R-181, 3/105:15. LCVA refers to the Lietuvos centrinis valstybės archyvas [Lithuanian Central State Archives].
13 LSSR KGB 5th Directorate report “On the state of the campaign against enemy emissary activities under contemporary circumstances and measures to strengthen that effort,” June 24, 1981, LYA, K-1, 49/301: 279.
14 After a territorial dispute that lasted several years, the Vilnius region was annexed by Poland in 1920. After the outbreak of World War II, the area was occupied by the Soviet Union and later transferred to Lithuanian control.
15 J. Rugienis, CRA Representative in the Lithuanian SSR, to CRA Deputy Chairman A. Barmenkov, February 23, 1972, LCVA, R-181, 1/186: 89.
16 Pro memoria note by Stasys Lozoraitis, Secretary of the Lithuanian Legation to the Holy See, January 24, 1980, LCVA, 2/673, 80: 7.
17 Diary of bishop L. Povilonis, entry dated March 24, 1980, KAKA. It refers to the Kauno arkivyskupijos kurijos archyvas [Kaunas Archdiocese Curia Archives].
18 Povilonis, May 17, 1980.
19 Interview with Cardinal A. J. Bačkis, October 29, 2018, author's personal archives.
20 Letter of S.A. Bačkis to his son A.J. Bačkis, May 2, 1980, cited from: Arūnas Streikus, Diplomatas Stasys Antanas Bačkis (Vilnius: Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimų centras, 2007), 262–264.
21 This was part of a broader plan for the reorganization of the Lithuanian church hierarchy by which, in exchange for the ordination as bishops of two additional clergymen loyal to the Soviet regime, another former deportee, Bishop Sladkevičius, would be given a post.
22 Interview with Cardinal A. J. Bačkis, October 29, 2018, author's personal archives.
23 In 1980, efforts succeeded not only regarding the opening of a Catholic chapel for athletes competing in the Olympic Games in Moscow, but also for the import of forty-five tons of high-quality paper for the printing of new missals in the Lithuanian language. At a meeting with the CPAC Secretary in Rome on September 4, 1980, the director of the Soviet Foreign Ministry's First Section, Anatoly Adamishin, expressed his satisfaction with the state of unofficial contacts, which facilitated the discussion and resolution of issues. See meeting minutes prepared by Mons. Sainz, September 4, 1980, in La politica del dialogo, 832.
24 For more, see Arūnas Streikus, “Bažnyčia tremtyje: vyskupas Julijonas Steponavičius,” LKMA Metraštis, 35 (2011): 22.
25 Povilonis, August 1, 1983.
26 Povilonis, April 21, 1982.
27 Copy of excerpt from the diary of V. Bogomazov, Counsellor at the Soviet Embassy in Rome, June 15, 1982, LYA, 1771, 260/183: 128.
28 Report by E. Juozėnas, Deputy CRA Representative in the Lithuanian SSR, on his conversation with Bishop L. Povilonis, May 29, 1980, LCVA, R-181, 3/105: 225.
29 Interview with Cardinal A. J. Bačkis.
30 Ibid.
31 Povilonis, February 5, 1983.
32 Nikolay Koposov, Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018): 25–59.
33 Kowal, Pawel, “Papież, czyli zagrożenie dla komunizmu. Polityka wschodnia Stolicy Apostolskiej w latach 1978–1985 w dokumentach służb specjalnych PRL,” Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej 5 (2016): 354Google Scholar.
34 Citta del Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato, S.RR.SS., Archivio storico, Fondo Spogli, Card. Agostino Casaroli, 82: 943–954.
35 Povilonis, April 6, 1984. Bishop Povilonis was also not allowed to travel to the synod of bishops in Rome in the autumn of 1983. It may be that one of the reasons for such a prohibition was also the desire to avoid any expected official invitation to the pope.
36 Made all the more acute by the announcement in early 1984 of the establishing of official diplomatic ties between the United States and the Holy See, clearly signalling the close cooperation developing between Washington and Rome.
37 The greatest number of such articles was authored by Ivan Tikhonovich (later also known as Jan Chiechanowicz, a Polish-speaking politician of questionable reputation), then the director of the Division for Vatican Eastern Policy, Clerical Anti-Communism and Counterpropaganda of the Institute of Scientific Atheism's Vilnius Branch.
38 Gayte, Marie, “The Vatican and the Reagan administration: a Cold War alliance?,” The Catholic Historical Review 97, no. 4 (2011): 713–736CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paul Kengor, A Pope and a President. John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary UntoldSstory of the 20th Century (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2017).
39 For more see: Artūras Grickevičius, Užsienio lietuvių vyskupas Paulius Antanas Baltakis OFM: tarnystės Bažnyčiai ir Tėvynei kelias (Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas, 2018).
40 For more, see Arūnas Streikus, “Sovietų režimo pastangos sužlugdyti Lietuvos krikšto jubiliejaus minėjimą,” Bažnyčios Istorijos Studijos 1 (2007): 63–75.
41 Information provided by CRA Representative in the Lithuanian SSR P. Anilionis regarding a conversation with Bishop Povilonis, April 29, 1986, LCVA, R-181, 3/12:19–20.
42 Kopys, Tadeusz, “Polityka Jana Pawła II wobec Kościołów za żelazną kurtyną w drugiej połowie lat osiemdziesiątych XX wieku,” Folia Historica Cracoviensia 18 (2012): 279CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
43 On that day, the anniversary of the first mass deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia on June 14, 1941, was commemorated.
44 LSSR KGB Division I to the USSR KGB PGU RT office, January 4, 1987, LYA, K-35, 2/232: 107–108.
45 Only Philippine Cardinal Jaime Sin and a group of Liberation Theology proponents from Brazil were allowed to travel to Lithuania to attend jubilee celebrations.
46 Maslova, Irina, “Gosudarstvenno-konfessionalnaja politika v SSSR: povorot kursa v 1985–1988 gg.,” Izvestija vysshych ucebnych zavedenij. Povolzskij region 36, no. 4 (2015): 52Google Scholar; Smolkin, Victoria, A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018)Google Scholar.
47 Report by CPAC Undersecretary Bačkis regarding the bishops’ meetings with government officials, June 6, 1988, Citta del Vaticano, Segreteria di Stato, S.RR.SS., Archivio storico, Fondo Spogli, Card. Agostino Casaroli, Pos. 80: 736.
48 Draft meeting minutes prepared by F. Sainz regarding the meeting between Cardinal Casaroli and CRA Chairman K. Kharchev, June 15, 1988, in La politica del dialogo, 841.
49 Ibid., 847.
50 USSR KGB PGU assignment “Regarding activities concerning the Vatican,” November 2, 1988, LYA, K-35, 2/233: 35.