THE GERMAN OCCUPATION REGIME ON THE TERRITORY OF SOVIET UKRAINE AND THE PROBLEM OF COLLABORATION IN THE SUMMER-FALL OF 1941

Abstract

The article substantiates the scientific and political relevance of the topic of studying the German occupation policy in Ukraine in 1941. The main differences in the approaches to this problem of Russian and Ukrainian historians are shown. The source base of this study was the documents of the intelligence agencies of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts from the funds of the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense, which contain secret directives of the German command that determine the political and economic activities of the Germans on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR that they have seized. Purpose of the study: using previously unknown archival documents to characterize the main directions of the Nazi occupation policy in Ukraine in 1941 and to show the role of Ukrainian collaborators in creating a "new order" in the occupied territories. The basis of the research methodology is the principle of historicism, which presupposes an examination of the object under study, taking into account the specific circumstances of the second half of 1941. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the authors showed the evolution of the views of the German government regarding the prospects for Ukrainian statehood; gave a description of the economic activities of the Third Reich on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR; proved that the suppression of the partisan movement became an important direction of the occupation policy; identified the main methods and means of Nazi propaganda in Ukraine. The main scientific result: it is shown that the German occupation authorities, having established a repressive regime in Ukraine, considered Ukrainian nationalists exclusively as puppets, without putting on the agenda the issue of creating Ukraine as an independent state.