THE UKRAINIAN SSR POSTWAR WORKING CLASS (1946 – 1965) IN EVALUATION OF WESTERN SOVIETOLOGY

Abstract

The article describes the most important tendencies in the study of the history of the Ukrainian Soviet working class of the postwar period (1946 – 1965) in Western historiography. The achievements, main ideas and peculiarities of the historiographical process, methods of historical research, influence of socio-political phenomena on the themes and content of works of Sovietologists are determined. The main thesis of the article is the statement that Western historical science paid much attention to the study of the Ukrainian Soviet society of postwar twenty years, in particular to the study of the situation of the Soviet workers as the most mass class of the society. The key thesis of Western Sovietology regarding the problems of Ukrainian Soviet postwar working class was the emphasis on the complete lack of workers’ rights. According to Sovietologists, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union pursued a policy of industrial totalitarianism towards the Soviet working class, imposing on workers the orientation of accelerated forced industrial development at any cost, causing the workers a direct material as well as indirect social and moral damage. One of the central places in the study of the situation of Ukrainian working class in the first postwar twenty years is obtained by the conclusion of Western scholars regarding the strengthening of the targeted Russianization policy of Moscow, including the method of relocating a significant number of Russian workers to the cities of Southeastern Ukraine.