2026 Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture

In honour of 100 years since the birth of Ukrainian historian and political scientist Bohdan Bociurkiw

“A priest in Soviet Western Ukraine between Catholicism and Orthodoxy: Rev. Mykhailo Datsyshyn (1914–93)”
Presented by Natalia Shlikhta
Friday 20 February 2026
7 p.m.
St. John’s Cultural Centre, 10611 110 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB

2026 Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture
In honour of 100 years since the birth of Ukrainian historian and political scientist
Bohdan Bociurkiw
Bociurkiw Poster

“A priest in Soviet Western Ukraine between Catholicism and Orthodoxy: Rev. Mykhailo Datsyshyn (1914–93)”
Presented by Natalia Shlikhta
Friday 20 February 2026
7 p.m.
St. John’s Cultural Centre, 10611 110 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB

The Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture was established in November 2001 to honour the memory of Professor Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, an eminent political scientist and internationally renowned specialist in human rights, Soviet religious policy, and Ukrainian church history.

This academic year we honour 100 years since the birth of Bohdan Bociurkiw (1925–98), and 50 years since the founding of CIUS, recognizing his significant contributions to Ukrainian studies and to our institute.

“A priest in Soviet Western Ukraine between Catholicism and Orthodoxy: Rev. Mykhailo Datsyshyn (1914–93)”

Based on its imperialist and anti-religious policies, the Stalinist leadership took aim at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in Galicia shortly after this territory was incorporated into the USSR on the eve of World War II. The decision to forcibly “reunite” the “Uniate Church,” as it was derogatorily called in Soviet-era documents, to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) was driven by geopolitical considerations, Soviet nationality policies, and social engineering.

The 2026 Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial Lecture will tell the story of the “reunited” UGCC ecclesiastical community through the life of Rev. Mykhailo Datsyshyn (1914–93), from the town of Stryi in Lviv oblast. Like many other Greek Catholic priests, he officially “reunited” with the ROC and served in its parishes in Lviv oblast for nearly fifty years. During this time, Soviet officials suspected him of being a “covert Uniate”; and indeed, he also maintained connections with the hierarchy and clergy of the Ukrainian Church “in the catacombs.” However, this did not prevent accusations of “apostasy” from his parishioners and fellow priests after the UGCC was revived in the early 1990s. Today, the UGCC considers Rev. Datsyshyn a “martyr” who dedicated his life to preserving the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community and its traditions during the Soviet regime.

Register here:
https://www.ualberta.ca/en/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/news-and-events/annual-lectures/bociurkiw-memorial-lecture/2026-bohdan-bociurkiw-memorial-lecture.html