POST-WAR SCHOOLING IN THE LIGHT OF REPORTING DOCUMENTS OF THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the study is to analyze what information about schooling in Drohobych and Lviv regions is presented in OUN reports, their significance for comprehensive and objective coverage of educational processes in the western region of Ukraine in the early postwar years. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematization, scientificity, verification, authorial objectivity, moderate narrative constructivism, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic) methods. Scientific novelty lays in an attempt to show how members of the Ukrainian liberation movement evaluated Soviet educational policy, and by what means they fought against the Sovietization of schooling in the region. It is proved that the Ukrainian liberation forces analyzed the conditions, personnel, content and results of the educational process in schools, determined the tasks set by the Soviet system for students and teachers and what methods were used to achieve them. It is found how the underground reports describe the everyday life of teachers. Conclusions. OUN reports are extremely important historical sources that shed light on the confrontation between the OUN/UPA and the Soviet system over school in the western regions of Ukraine in the early postwar years. Information from underground reports proves that the network of schools and the number of teachers was increasing during this period. All teaching staffs in their majority consisted of teachers arrived from all regions of the USSR, in particular from eastern regions, and from the village derivatives regions of the USSR. Summaries from Lviv and Drohobych show that the emphasis was on the ideologization of the educational process, the mass involvement of students and teachers in Komsomol and pioneer organizations. The Soviet system used both propaganda and repressive measures to influence schooling. The OUN and UPA tried to prevent this through educational measures and force actions. Various actions of disobedience in schools testify to the vitality of national ideas and commitment to the youth movement.