The liquidation of the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church by Tsar Alexander was a tragic blow to a large part of the population in the eastern provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, which were incorporated into the Russian Empire. An imperial decree of 1875 recognized the Uniates as Russians who needed to be brought back into the fold of Orthodoxy. The Roman Catholic Church soon felt the consequences of the difficult situation of its sister church. Uniates who refused to accept Orthodoxy began to attend Catholic masses, which was not allowed by law. As a result, they and the Latin congregations that received them were subject to severe penalties. These included high fines, imprisonment or deportation to Siberia of priests helping the Uniates, and finally the liquidation of Catholic churches in areas recognized as Orthodox. Hopes for a more liberal policy towards the Kingdom of Poland and, consequently, an improvement in the situation of the Catholic Church were aroused when a number of reforms were initiated in St. Petersburg to absorb the wave of Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution. In 1905, the Tsar issued a decree guaranteeing religious tolerance to all its subjects. In practice, guarantees have been given an increasingly narrower interpretation. A good example is the dispute over the church in Opole-Podedwdrze in the Lublin Voivodeship. The church, allegedly a center of hostile propaganda, was closed and handed over to the local Orthodox administration in 1890. However, the Orthodox community had enough of its own churches in the area - and left it unattended. Repeated requests from Catholics wanting to save their church were ignored. After 1905, the position of the local authorities did not change, although the Act on Religious Tolerance seemed to have removed all obstacles to taking over the Church. The local orthodoxy did not think about retreating and organized a widely publicized ceremony to consecrate the church into an Orthodox church. At this point, Opole Catholics decided to draw the attention of the Russian parliament (Duma) to this matter. An appropriate interpolation was submitted by members of the Polish Club in 1908. At the beginning of 1910, it was at the top of the agenda and was discussed at six subsequent sessions. The case of the Catholic church in Opole-Podedworze was a local affair, but its real significance lies in the fact that it focused a wide and lively parliamentary discussion on the attitude of the Russian Empire towards the Polish nation and Catholicism.