First. the Communists attacked the church in eastern Ukraine. Within 10 years. from 1921 to 1931. they unjustly arrested and ruthlessly murdered 34 Ukrainian Orthodox bishops and more than 3.000 priests. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful were inhumanly tortured in prisons or deported to concentration camps in Siberia. a greater part of these innocent people died martyrs to their faith. the remainder still endures the appalling trials and hardships of imprisonment. The Reds destroyed 80 percent of the churches (many of these churches contained precious historical relics. as. for example. the Golden Domed Michalivsky Monastery in Kiev from the 12th century). other churches were despicably converted into warehouses. theaters. and convention halls. monasteries were outraged and cemeteries profaned. By 1930 the Communists had completely liquidated the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church. barring it from all public activity.
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deported