Political Persecution and Repression of Teachers of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1920 – 1930s

Abstract

The research exposes the essence of political repressions of teachers as an important socio-professional group of society. It is based on the study of archival and criminal cases and other documentary sources of the Soviet totalitarian regime of the 1920 – 1930s. The analysed sources allowed proving the absurdity and criminality of the Soviet government in relation to the repressed educators, and they also helped to reveal the substantive features of the accusations, which varied at different times. In the 1920s, it was mainly connected with military service and the so-called «tsarist» or «bourgeois» education. Over time, the emphasis was shifted to non-proletarian social origins or nationalism. However, in the 1930s there was an expansion of accusations, in particular of Trotskyism, which from the mid-1930s was sometimes fused with Ukrainian or Polish nationalism. The article describes the main methods of political repressions. In particular, it is a method of creating non-existent «counter-revolutionary organizations» and a method of demonstrative trials, which were clearly displaying to society the «inevitability» of the struggle against «enemies of the people». In addition, more lenient methods of repression, such as the method of «cleansing» depending on social origin, political persecution and pressure through the media, and pedagogical certification of teachers, have been identified. The consequences of political repression of educators for Ukrainian education during the formation of the Soviet totalitarian regime in the 1920s and 1930s, and the prospects for further research have been outlined in the study.