Taras Bublyk Greek Catholic Identity in Western Ukraine During the Process of Legalization, 1980s - 1990s Taras Bublyk - Assistant Professor of the Department of Church History, Ukrainian Catholic University (L'viv, Ukraine). tarbublyk@gmail.com The article deals with the revival of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the 1980 - 1990s. The Church officially ceased to exist in 1946 after the "reunification" with the Russian Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, the part of the Greek Catholic clergy and the faithful did not recognize this act and moved to the underground. The process of legalization and revival was accompanied by the growing movement for the Ukrainian national independence. At the same time, the Church continued to remain faithful to the Apostolic See, constantly emphasizing their belonging to the Catholic Church. The legalization of the Church involved not only the relationships with the states, but also with other churches -the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. The heated inter-religious conflict was deeply entangled with the issue of national and ecclesiastic identity. Keywords: Ukraine, Greek Catholic Church, Soviet Union, religious identity, national identity. The historical fate of Ukrainian Greek Catholics under the Soviet regime in recent decades is an object of scientific interest for many researchers in Ukraine and abroad. In the first period after the democratic changes in Central and Eastern Europe and the liberalization of public and religious life page 235In the USSR, scientists ' attention was mainly focused on the repressive policies of the Stalinist regime and the liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)1. Now the period associated with the struggle of Greek Catholics for legalization and getting out of the underground in the 80s and early 90s of the XX century begins to occupy a dominant place in research. However, even in these studies, socio-political c ... Read more