POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL DOMINANTS OF A. MAKARENKO: RETURN TO THE DISCUSSION TOPIC

Abstract

One of the most “politicized” figures in the history of national education is the internationally recognized educator and writer Anton Makarenko. Although over many decades everything related to Makarenko has been turned into a rather convincing ideological myth by the efforts of both apologists and opponents of Makarenko, there are enough reasons to doubt the truth of our ideas about the political worldview of this bright representative of reformist pedagogy. During the Soviet era, the image of A. Makarenko was established as an almost ideal communist educator from the point of view of origin and political views, but new sources and biographical research destroy existing stereotypes. The key points of the analysis of the raised question is Makarenko's system of attitudes towards: a) the revolutionary idea as such, b) the idea of socialism, c) Bolshevism and Stalinism. The basis for the reconstruction of these questions became numerous works of the educator, the texts of his public statements, private correspondence, diary entries, some media materials and memoir sources. Although the material presented in the article does not provide a comprehensive assessment of the essence of A. Makarenko's ideological and political position, it certainly refutes all “Stalinist” and “communist” accusations against him. The educator was not a convinced adept of communist, let alone Bolshevik ideology, on the contrary, he not only stubbornly resisted the politicization of the educational institutions headed by him, but in a private circle sharply and unequivocally criticized the main attributes of the new political system. And all his ideological statements in the last years of his life were only forced and quite typical defensive tactics for the years of the Stalin’s dictatorship. And if we can only guess about the real political views of many of A. Makarenko's contemporaries, then his true beliefs are now becoming more or less clear. There is no doubt that today's critics of A. Makarenko have no factual grounds to unconditionally accuse a person who, in the extremely dangerous conditions of a Totalitarianism, tried to protect his thing, his family, his priceless pedagogical heritage and, ultimately, his physical existence.