You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
So, everyone on this damned forum knows Ukraine and Belarus are pretty Orthodox Christian. However, back in the good old days of the Commonwealth, an event called the Union of Brest happened, and in it, the Orthodox guys in Ruthenia swore their allegiance to the Pope, while keeping their old Orthodox traditions, just starting the Eastern Catholic Church in Ruthenia. People as far east as Poltava and as far north as Smolensk and Polotsk were Catholics now, but all of that changed with people like Khmelnytsky and Tsar Nicholas I. More or less the sole remnant of this once Catholic Ruthenia is in Galicia, as it was conquered by Austria and thus stayed Catholic, unlike Kiev and the rest of the region that was reconverted to the Orthodox Church following the Partitions.