Viktor Danilov (20 July 1927 – 7 December 2016) was a parish priest of the Greek Catholic parish in Grodno, dean of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, chaplain, writer in Soviet times and religious dissident. He was also a historian,^[1] teacher and researcher.^[2]

Biography

Early life and studies

Born in Yaroslavl in 1927 in a family of medical doctors.^[3] In 1947 he entered the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. In 1948 he was arrested for his criticism of Stalin, and accused of anti-Soviet propaganda. Danilov was convicted under Articles 58-10 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to 10 years in a labor camp. After an attempted escape, he received a second conviction for a period of 10 years.

During his captivity he met other prisoners with many different religious beliefs and he started to rethink his position; after considering Judaism and Islam, he abandoned Marxism and atheism and became a Christian, later deciding to join the Catholic church.^[4] In 1955, he was released under the amnesty; some time later, he was completely exonerated.

In December 1955 he returned to his studies in the History Department of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. However, his first diploma was not issued on the grounds that he was an active Catholic, as the administration of the Institute was wary of possible denunciation. He made official requests to government agencies and under the "thaw", he eventually received his diploma. In 1960, he moved to Vilnius in 1963, graduated from Moscow Institute of Finance and Economic College, qualifying as a "Financial Economist". In 1967 he moved to Grodno, where he engaged in underground missionary activity. Searched twice, he was summoned for questioning.

Ordination

In the early 1970s, he was asked to consider joining the priesthood; as he was a married man, he studied the priesthood of the Byzantine rite.^[4] In 1976, he was secretly ordained a priest in Lviv by Metropolitan Volodymyr Sterniuk.^[3] He returned to Grodno,^[5] becoming the first Greek Catholic priest in modern Belarus,^[6] and began a priestly ministry underground.

After Perestroika he began teaching religious education and theology in 1992 and in 1999, he was named archpriest and dean of the Greek Catholic Church in Belarus.^[3]

Academic work

Danilov was also the author of a number of books and brochures on religious topics, including My Path to God and the Catholic Church.^[4] Danilov and Teodor Shanin started a study on The Peasant Revolution in Russia in 1994; the study lasted for six years.^[2] They also started the scientific journal Russian Peasant Studies in 1996.

Personal life

Danilov was married with a number of children and grandchildren.^[3] He died in Yaroslavl on 7 December 2016, aged 89.

Reading

• Leanid Marakou, Represavanyya litaratary, navukoўtsy, rabotnіkі asveta, gramadskiya i kulturnyya dzeyachy of Belarus, 1794-1991 (2003); ISBN 985-6374-04-9.
• Vladimir Kolupaev, Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference (19 November 2010), dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the city of Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl: Remder (2011), pp. 221–26; ISBN 978-5-94755-276-8
• Viktor Danilov, My way to God and to the Catholic Church. Grodno, (1997, 2003)