Deformation of the content and destruction of Ukrainian-centric scientific studies under the conditions of the approval of the bolshevyks’ totalitarian state information policy (first third of the 20th century)

Анотація

The purpose of the work is to reproduce the intensity of Ukrainian studies during the period of the establishment of Bolshevism in Ukraine (the first third of the 20th century), to clarify the motives and methods of ideologizing Ukrainian science and education in the conditions of the establishment of a totalitarian regime, to reveal the contradictory nature of the policy of «Ukrainization» and its impact on the development of Ukrainian studies, the reasons for their collapse. It was established that the policy of «Ukrainization» was a chance for the development of Ukrainian studies in the conditions of the establishment of totalitarianism in Ukraine. In its context, the activity of M. Hrushevskyi and associates, the work of the structural units of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, was of epoch-making importance for the development of Ukrainian-centric studies, which completed the process of transforming Ukrainian science into a socially recognized phenomenon, which provided for the organic unity and integrity of the system of knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Emphasis is placed on the contradictory consequences for Ukrainian studies of the policy of «Ukrainization» as a manoeuvre for the establishment of the Bolshevik regime in Ukraine, the introduction of a new worldview monoparadigm into science and education – Marxism-Leninism and the party-class interpretation of social and national development. However, the expansion of the sphere of use of the Ukrainian language, the creation of a network of national educational and cultural institutions, the training of scientific personnel, and the activities of the Academy of Sciences contributed to the development of the scientific foundations of Ukrainian studies.

Ukrainian studies activities of M. Hrushevskyi, K. Hrushevskyi, D. Bagaliy, M. Vasylenko, O. Germayze, O. Hrushevskyi, V. Danylevich, I. Zhitetskyi, V. Romanovskyi, M. Slabchenko, E. Tymchenko, V. Kharlampovych,

Yavornytskyi, the involvement of the young generation of scientists contributed to the progress of Ukrainian studies, the formation of its new centers, the concentration of efforts in the direction of working out the key problems of the history and culture of Ukraine, the integration of archaeological, historical, linguistic, economic knowledge about the ethnogenesis of the Ukrainian people, the uniqueness of its language, traditions and customs about national liberation competitions for independence and own statehood. The main achievement of this period was the development of new methods of knowledge, primarily sociological, and the development of synthetic knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainianness. Involvement of a wide range of scientists in cooperation, expansion of the scope of scientific research, use of new archeographic information, a wide range of popularization of publishing products, and combination of scientific and research work with educational and pedagogical work were characteristic parameters of the activities of the institutions headed by M. Hrushevskyi. What was new was the study of southern Ukrainian issues and the development of other regional studies through the organization of sub-district commissions. The scientific concept of Ukrainian studies organically combined the development of knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainians with the revival of national traditions and the assimilation of European values.

From the end of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the offensive of the command-administrative and repressive Stalinist machine intensified in Soviet Ukraine. All branches of Ukrainian studies were subjected to violence: Ukrainian history, philology, archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, art history, economic history, law, etc. Through bloody repressions, «purges», famine, and campaigns against «Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism», the so-called Marxist interpretation of Ukrainian life was established, its national values and peculiarities were levelled, the scientific school of M. Hrushevskyi was defeated, and his scientific scheme was rejected. Interference in the internal affairs of scientific institutions, the holding of elections to the National Academy of Sciences and the organization of its activities under strict party control, the transition to the total ideologization of all science, the deployment of a campaign to «expose enemies and pests on the cultural and scientific front», mass repressions against scientists, primarily Ukrainian studies, caused the collapse of Ukrainian studies. The elimination of «Ukrainization» caused the deformation of the content of Ukrainian studies, and the spread of totalitarianism and mass repressions led to their final curtailment and ban in the USSR, which led to a change in geographical emphasis in favour of the diaspora.