THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN POLAND 155the remaining Uniate dioceses into their Orthodox counterparts. In celebration,
Nicholas struck a medal with the inscription: 'Separated by hate 1595, reunited
by love 1839'. On the second occasion, the destruction of the Uniate community
in the Polish provinces served as a necessary prelude to the policy of
Russification. As usual, it was undertaken at the point of Cossack lances:
At Pratulin in the district of Janow, the troops fired and killed thirteen persons. The
expedition was led by Ku tanin, the governor of the district and by a Colonel Stein. The
survivors were cast into chains and sent to the prison at Bialy, whither they walked to
the singing of hymns... An old peasant called Pikuta, refused to submit, and his words
were repeated by all the men of Pratulin in the Governor's presence: 'I swear on my white
hairs, for the safety of my soul, and as I wish to see God at my death, that I shall not
renounce one syllable of our faith, nor will my neighbours. The holy martyrs bore so
many persecutions, and our brothers have spilled so much blood that we must imitate
them.' When a woman was ordered to sign an Orthodox document on pain of exile to
Siberia, she refused. 'Then we shall take your child'. Take it', she said, 'God will take
care of it.' Having blessed the child, she put it into the hands of the thugs. She was called
Kraiczikka...^4
These scenes were re-enacted in village after village. Eventually, the Uniate
Church was so wasted that it could take but little advantage of the brief inter-
lude of toleration in 1906—14. Wherever possible, its adherents took refuge
among their co-religionists across the frontier in Galicia. The Terror to which
they were subjected, for reasons of undiluted bigotry, was the true spiritual
ancestor of the ideological purges of the Soviet period.^5
The true temper of Russian policy can be gauged, among other things, from
the legislation on relations between the Catholics and the Orthodox. Catholic
priests were forbidden to administer the sacraments to anyone except to their
registered parishioners, and by a clause of the Concordat of 1847 immediate
exile in the Siberian gubernias of Tomsk or Tobolsk awaited Catholic converts
from Orthodoxy. Mixed marriages were virtually impossible, not because of the
Catholic rules governing the religious education of children, but because the
Tsarist authorities claimed the right to take such children into state care. At
the same time, every encouragement was given to Catholic apostates. On con-
dition of their conversion to Orthodoxy, Catholic convicts were granted official
absolution from their crimes, whilst their wives were permitted to divorce and
remarry. Contrary to the usual practice of the Russian Church, ex-Catholic
priests were given licence to take a wife after their Orthodox ordination.
The stance of the Vatican, was, to say the least, ambiguous. Although some
controversy surrounds the motives of individual pontiffs, it is a simple fact that
the Roman Curia failed to convince Polish Catholics of their good intentions.
Throughout the period of the Partitions, the Vatican showed itself to be negli-
gent, if not openly hostile, to Polish aspirations. Alienated by the strong link
between national liberation and social radicalism, the Curia saw no reason why
the Church should intervene too energetically with the Powers on the Poles'
behalf. In an era when Tsardom was seen as the chief guarantor of the social