Transformation of the Traditional Religiosity of the Ukrainian Peasantry (1920s – 1930s): Conceptualization of Research Problem

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to highlight the set of circumstances and factors that caused the transformation of the peasantry traditional religiosity and to emphasize the interdependence of the processes in the event-contextual and mental-conscious spheres/dimensions. Scientific novelty: Despite the rather thorough scientific analysis of the issue, the dominance of the positivist approach is observed in historiography; therefore, the conceptualization of the problem makes it possible to understand the non-fragmentary factual multiplicity of certain plots, which evinced in one way or another the transformations of religiosity in the social and cultural space of the 1920s – 1930s, but it allows to clarify and generalize the reasons, nature, dynamics, and essential characteristics of the processes related to the transformation of religiosity under the new social and cultural conditions of the communist-atheist power. Conclusions. There is a certain dependency between the architectonics of human existence and the worldview benchmarks of a certain era. Therefore, not only anti-religious and anti-church propaganda (as a means of ideological influence), but also the socio-economic and political development of society (industrialization, collectivization, cultural revolution, renewal of everyday life, etc.) destroyed the former stable world of customs and rituals. Therefore, it is obviously worth talking not about the transformation of religiosity, but about complex transformations. The nature of the religiosity transformational processes depended on many factors. In the context of the eroding of old church doctrines, the revision of fixed moral and ethical norms, the onset of atheism, in the eyes of Christians, the stable world was degrading, losing sanctified traditions and moral standards. Religious integrity and the durability of religious culture were lost. In search of compensation for the emerging worldview uncertainty, anxiety, dissatisfaction, etc., the individual looked for new benchmarks, values, ideals, and ways of organizing life in society through the transformation of stable forms and ways of life. In the confrontation of two worldview cultural models, society, having undergone complex transformations, slowly adapted to the conditions established by the communist regime and its worldview instructions.