I quote again from the State Departments special report: [Soviet authorities] drew up plans for the liquidation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church: These became reality with the Soviet acquisition in 1939 of western Ukraine and western Belorussia. which had large congregations of Catholics. With Soviet occupation. there immediately followed the abolition or state takeover of longstanding church institutionsIncluding schools. seminaries. monasteries. and pub. lishing housesand the confiscation of all church properties and lands. Finally. as the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Soviet Secret Police rounded up a large number of Ukrainian Catholic priests who were either murdered or deported to the east. Following the Nazi attack on the U.S.S.R.. Stalin altered substantially his tactics toward religious communities.
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deported