Social Preconditions for the Humanitarian Crisis in Donetsk Region

Abstract

The author analyzes dynamic changes of social structure of Donbas region that were caused by numerous migrations and governmental industrialization. These factors converted Ukrainian territory into a biethnic region with the pro-Russian vectors. It is indicated that elimination of Ukrainian villages took place during collectivization, collapse of the traditional frame of the society, and Holodomor of 1932–33 – a famine-genocide with physical elimination of millions of people. Demographic losses of the Ukrainian rural population, its substitution by migrants from nearby territories, deprivation of economic ground through the prohibition of private peasant economies, as well as deportation during the Soviet period, deprived the most numerous national group of possibilitiess for future development. The industrialization, guided by the state, systematically changed the social and settlement structure of the population. Numerous migrations, aimed at the industrial production, caused massive flows of the Russian population to the urbanized cities. As a result, migration dynamics unified and assimilated different ethnic groups with the Russian lifestyle, language, and culture as the pillar favored by the state. It is indicated that the social base of the industrial region was formed as a conglomerate of labor migrants, deported population, amnestied and demobilized persons, whose values were corrected by the state through dividing them into loyal and disloyal to the Soviet regime. It is distinguished that the economic crisis, shutdown of unprofitable mines in the region negatively influenced the population and entailed social tension, taking into account the settlement structure geared to production maintenance. The poor social position of Ukrainians from the professional standpoint became the specific of the region. In fact, leading positions in profitable spheres and administration were taken by the members of other ethnonational groups. The author argues that the social specifics of Donbas, correlation of ethnonational and social-professional structure of the population did not favor public activity and political influence on the development of Ukrainians, which resulted in the humanitarian loss of the region.