Youth political indoctrination in educational institutions of the Labour Reserves System during the economy restoration of Ukraine (1943–1950)

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the characteristic features of the political indoctrination of students of the Labour Reserves educational institutions during Ukraine's economic reconstruction (1943-1950). General scientific and special historical methods (comparative-historical, historical-systemic, retrospective), as well as elements of hermeneutics and content analysis, were used. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fundamental study of previously under-investigated issue of organizing the ideological brainwashing of State Labour Reserve students.

It was found that the system of political indoctrination was inextricably integrated into the educational process in the institutions of the Labour Reserves system. The ideological processing carried out during the program political classes in the factory training and vocational schools was necessarily based on Bolshevik clichés (about the class struggle, socialist revolution, the construction of communism) and appealed to the prepared tendentious version of modern history with an emphasis on the events of the introduction of Soviet power and World War II, which were subjected to special glorification. The saturation of textbooks in all disciplines with ideological information and teaching exclusively in Russian also contributed to the establishment of communist and Russian great-power myths.

The organization of the extracurricular life of youth in the Labour Reserves System institutions was based on the semi-military principles of education using the principles of authoritarian pedagogy. Activities for conducting student leisure activities necessarily had an ideological and patriotic orientation. Among the types of extracurricular work, the most direct importance for political indoctrination was the circle and lecture activities carried out under the auspices of party and Komsomol bodies. Entertainment for Labour Reserves students, such as trips to the cinema, was planned with the inclusion of Soviet ideological and patriotic films in the repertoire. The celebration of official holidays and solemn events in educational institutions was aimed at glorifying the existing totalitarian regime and introducing the cult of communist leaders. Being subjected to propaganda processing, the student youth themselves became its tool, as they were involved in agitation groups aimed at working with broad segments of the population.