YOUTH OF UKRAINE IN SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1940s

Abstract

Summary. The aim of the research is to fully explore the peculiarities of youth involvement in the socio-political processes that occurred in Ukraine during the second half of the 1940s. This aim has been achieved by using the complex of sources, historiographical achievements and applying the modern methodological approaches. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientific character, historicism, dialectical approach, the author’s objectivity, specific analysis, system-formation considering the methodological pluralism that exists in historical science today. There was used the principle of author’s objectivity particularly to evaluate the events and phenomena that had been occurring during this period and influenced on socio-economic, political and cultural life of the youth. The author used general scientific, interdisciplinary, general historical as well as specific sources research methods of the scientific research. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the argumentation of the fact, that, the material and social living conditions of the youth, its socio-political engagements and religious beliefs are studied here in the context of social, economic and political challenges of the postwar period considering the influence of external factors, ideologization and cultural life politization of Ukraine. Conclusions. Summing up, one of the main problems of the postwar young generation was the scarcity of housing, poor housing conditions and many others inconveniences. However, the targeted and aggressive state propaganda gave the population a hope for a better future and convinced people that all these postwar hardships were only temporary so the youth got used to the specific conditions of that time. It was the postwar generation who had the hardest time dealing with the choosing of their beliefs, assessment of the external and internal political events, sorting themselves out and their likes or dislikes due to the totalitarian regime in the country. Poor material and living conditions and rigorous policy of the ruling regime provoked the need of social changes among the young generation. This need contributed to the emergence of the «Khrushchev’s Thaw».