Traditional religiosity in the socio-cultural continuum of the borderline (1920‒1930s)

Abstract

Among the priority directions of research of domestic historians of the period of independence of Ukraine, the problems of the history of the Church and the clergy. One of the turning points in the history of society and the state was the period of the 1920s and 1930s, when a special form of secular processes inherent in the Soviet totalitarian system and the artificial liberation (mostly under the pressure of the state) of social life from the influence of religion determined the church and religious situation of the specified and and subsequent periods. The study of the transformation of religiosity in such turning points objectifies the transmission of the religious tradition or highlights gaps in continuity, contributes to the understanding of experience, mental structures of consciousness, the construction of religious and social identity, etc. The transformational breaks characteristic of transitional periods (in particular, the 1920s and 1930s) are manifested quite clearly in not one of the segments, but, as a rule, cover all components of the sociocultural life space, creating at the same time a situation of instability and uncertainty, generating a crisis of identities, strengthening differentiation society, etc. Under these conditions, the processes of finding new forms of socio-cultural organization, norms, rules, meaning of being, cultural paradigm, building a new hierarchy of values and identities are intensified. A retrospective study of traditional religiosity in the socio-cultural continuum processes of the borderline period of the 1920‒1930s is present, first of all, in its importance for a holistic systematic, scientific study of the problems of state-church relations, church history, worldview transformation, etc., and the need for expansion problematic research field. The establishment of the Bolshevik political regime in Ukraine and the socio-economic modernization processes caused not only radical socio-political and socio-economic changes, but also followed the establishment of a new socio-cultural reality, the formation of a new system of value orientations, etc. Religiosity is not constant – it changes depending on the socio-cultural determinants of a particular society, which is transformed. Objectively, the dynamics of religiosity are influenced by socio-economic, political-ideological, demographic, cultural, environmental, household and other factors. In transitional period of the 1920s and 1930s, on the one hand, we observe persistent religiosity, supported by part of the rural population, on the other hand, the formation of supporters of a new ideological system and a new socialist ritual, the construction of the “Own/Stranger” watershed (marginalization of the clergy), the establishment of a new non-religious way of life, support and participation in the anti-religious campaigns of the Soviet government, aimed, first of all, against the old system of values, age-old traditions, religious consciousness, etc. Keywords: religiosity, tradition, Church, borderline, Ukrainian peasantry, Soviet state