After regaining independence, the state authorities of Ukraine undertook actions aimed at obtaining the autocephaly by the local Orthodox Church. This process was difficult due to the existing divisions in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The most numerous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, with autonomous status, did not show any aspirations for independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. The political activities undertaken in 2018, supported by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, led to the acquisition of the tomos from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The participation of the Catholic Church in the systemic changes in Poland is unquestionable. The significant role of church hierarchs, middle- and lower-level pastors in accelerating the erosion of the communist dictatorship in Poland over the years, and especially in the last decade of the Polish People’s Republic, is unquestionable. Analogous processes of political, social, economic and cultural changes taking place in neighboring countries where Catholicism was the dominant religion were also stimulated to a large extent by representatives of the clergy. However, the issue of the importance of the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union for the systemic changes at the end of the 1980s remains slightly more complicated. Therefore, the article compares two powerful Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, from the point of view of analogy and diff erences in the role, influence and importance of these institutions for the collapse of both authoritarian systems.

Throughout the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, the PAKP was part of the trend of religious loyalty to the state promoted by the communist authorities. In many respects, it declared support for the political, social and economic changes taking place after 1945. This was due to both its own organizational weaknesses and theological assumptions. It also supported the actions of the communist authorities against the emerging “Solidarity” and the introduction of martial law in Poland.