|OVERVIEW OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY IN UKRAINE| The following article
has been compiled from texts written by Prof. Oleh Turiy of the
Institute of Church History of Lviv, Ukraine; Bishop Michel
Hrynchyshyn, C.SS.R., Apostolic Exarch for Byzantine-rite
Ukrainian faithful in France and Apostolic Administrator for
those residing in Germany; and Giampaolo Mattei of L'Osservatore
Romano. Ukraine has a long Christian tradition, dating from the
10th century. Today there are over 22,000 religious communities
in Ukraine from about 80 different Christian denominations, as
well as other religions. But the atheist policy of the Soviets
has left its mark: many Ukrainians today are unchurched because
of the great spiritual void which the Bolshevik regime left in
Eastern Europe. The conversion of Ukraine and tensions between
East and West In 988 Prince Volodymyr the Great established
Christianity in its Byzantine-Slavic rite as the national
religion of his country, Kievan-Rus. This happened before the
Great Church Schism of 1054