ABSTRACT
Catholics occupied one of the last positions in the ethnic and religious hierarchy of Soviet Kazakhstan. Unable to participate in the religious revival that co-occurred with the nationalist mobilisation of the Second World War, Catholics in Kazakhstan had no choice but to function “underground”. They applied for the legalisation of their communities rather late, only in the 1970s. While presenting the efforts undertaken to achieve official registration of two Catholic congregations, the author makes use of documents from the State Archive of the Akmola Region in Kazakhstan. The second type of sources are interviews with Polish residents of the Shortandy district and repatriates from Kazakhstan living in Poland.
