Myroslav Lushchak: in the footsteps of the Stanislaviv seminarian

Abstract

The main stages of the life of Myroslav Luschak were revealed and analysed in the article. Myroslav Luschak was a graduate of the Stanislaviv Theological Seminary, worked as an employee of the Ukrainian cooperative and a merchant, a man whose dreams about priesthood life were suddenly interrupted during Soviet intervention in Eastern Galicia. Based on archival sources, witness stories, specific scientific literature and journalism issues the main events of the life of the mentioned personality in childhood, adolescence and adulthood were revealed.

When Myroslav finished school, he began to work at the railway station together with his father and elder brother. All that time Myroslav’s parents were instilling a great love for God to him. In 1930-1931 he served in the Polish army. A few years later Myroslav Luschak started to work in the Ukrainian cooperative organization, and in 1939 he worked as a seller in «Maslosoyuz». In the same year Myroslav Luschak graduated the Stanislaviv Seminary and wanted to become a priest.

The main attention is paid to period 1939-1941, when Soviet occupation of Stanislaviv caused fateful events in the life of Myroslav Luschak and led finally to his death. From September 1939 to June 1941 he worked at the Universal freight base Oblspozhyvspilka in Stanislaviv. In June 1941 when Myroslav Luschak was returning home from the church, he was arrested by the Soviet NKVD and imprisoned in the Stanislaviv prison. Myroslav disappeared without a trace after his arrest, and his relatives searched for him for many years. Only in October 1989 during the archeological excavations of Demianiv Laz close to Ivano-Frankivsk the documents of Myroslav Luschak were found. Repressions of the Soviet totalitarian regime against people and Church are considered by the authors of this article as the main reasons of the destroyed dreams of the researched person.