THE STRUGGLE OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIME AGAINST THE ETHNIC IDENTITY OF UKRAINIANS BY MEANS OF ATHEISM IN THE EDUCATIONAL SPACE IN THE 20S AND 30S OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The Muscovite Empire has been waging a war with Ukrainian identity for centuries, which prompts our people to fierce resistance. The Soviet authorities tried to impose a new type of identity on us, to educate the youth in respect for everything Russian and disdain for everything native. The policy of unification and Soviet identity was actively pursued. Today, the educational space of Ukraine is freed from the Moscow yoke and at the same time tries to weaken the influence of globalization processes. Ethnic identity is a component of national identity. Ethnic identity is the sphere of the sacred, which is manifested in the concepts of family, family, lineage, native house, native land, song, word, dialect, community, tradition, rite, ritual. Atheistic upbringing in education destroyed the sphere of the sacred, destroyed the cultural, and especially folklore memory of the people. All educational disciplines were filled with anti-religious content. The nationally conscious intelligentsia resisted militant atheism in the field of education. The main blow of the anti-religious work was directed against the Ukrainian family, against family holidays. Teachers intensified their atheistic work during major holidays: so-called “Saturdays” were necessarily organized on major Christian holidays. Today, society has entered into a duel for independence. And in this struggle, a prominent place belongs to educators. The experience of the past should serve us in the present. Keywords: atheism; identity; ethnic identity; Ukrainization; atheist upbringing; communist education; pedagogical intelligentsia; family values; Cordocentrism; Sophianism; atheism.