“Director of Ukraine”. Behavioral mechanisms and specifics of professional relations of Petro Shelest, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine

Abstract

Based on a detailed study and analysis of archival sources and testimonies of contemporaries, the characteristics of Petro Shelest’s methods and principles of personnel selection for key positions in the Ukrainian SSR, his relations with subordinates in the process of work, formation of the closest circle of colleagues are presented. The analysis of the personnel of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1963-1972 has been made. Based on memoir sources, character traits have been studied; personal qualities, as well as originality of relations of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party both with subordinates and the top leadership of the Soviet state and family members have been de- scribed. The author of the article clarifies the main trends in the development of the system of privileges and the privileges of the Soviet nomenklatura in the period of “stagnation”. The pro-Ukrainian course of the leader of the republican party organization was reflected in the author’s book OUR SOVIET UKRAINE, which was published in 1970. At first glance, the openly ideological propaganda work of Petro Shelest clearly demonstrated the attention of the republican party-state elite to the social economic problems of Ukraine, and the interest in its history and culture. Sometimes Shelest defended individual Ukrainian cultural figures who were subjected to ideological persecution. At the same time, Petro Shelest remained a typical expression of the Soviet command-administrative system. It was during his leadership of the republic that mass punitive operations against the Ukrainian national movement took place. In August 1968, Shelest was one of the initiators of the suppression of the “Prague Spring” which, in his opinion, contributed to the spread of anti-Soviet sentiment in Ukraine.However, P. Shelest’s pursuit of an autonomist course, his independence in resolving issues, and “localism and manifestations of nationalism” could not please the allied leadership. In April 1973, a campaign was inspired against his book OUR SOVIET UKRAINE. The book, which had a circulation of 100,000 copies, was withdrawn from sale and libraries. Shelest was removed from the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee “for health reasons” and was forced to take retirement.