SOCIAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF STALINISM IN SOVIET UKRAINE: HISTORICAL ASPECT

Abstract

The study of the history of Soviet Ukraine between the First and Second World Wars is currently relevant, as it was during the Stalinist era that the foundations of a state were laid – one that, a century later, transformed into a country envisioning war against a neighboring independent European nation as the only scenario for its future. This period is primarily associated with unprecedented political terror and repression directed against the Ukrainian intelligentsia, peasants, and workers. Violence was employed not only against those in opposition to Bolshevism, but also against individuals whom the party ideologists considered enemies due to their origin, occupation, or their adherence to certain cultural codes, worldviews, values, and beliefs that contradicted the official stance, which was typically declared the only correct one. This segment of Soviet Ukrainian society was condemned to executions and prison terms, and was to be replaced by the “new man” – deprived of family traditions, national identity, respect for private property, entrepreneurial qualities, and the right to an independent opinion – all of which had formed the basis of civilizational progress in Europe throughout the “long” 19th century. One of the methods for shaping this communist “new man” was social inequality, the existence of which was officially denied and silenced in the USSR, while a mythologeme was actively promoted that in the Land of the Soviets all people were equal in terms of property, political, social, and cultural rights. Introduction. Communist ideology envisaged the construction of a new classless society based on universal equality and free from property and social conflicts. Under the influence of state coercion and pervasive, large-scale propaganda, the Kremlin’s party elite sought to convince the population of Ukraine that such a society was not only a matter of the future, but had already been established in the Land of the Soviets. Research Objective: To analyze the main principles of Stalin’s domestic policy and form a comprehensive picture of the construction of a totalitarian communist society within the republic, using the socio-legal sphere of interwar Soviet Ukraine as a case study. Results. The article identifies the main categories of the Soviet Ukrainian population and the state’s attitude toward each of them, based on the example of Stalinist social policy and its legal foundation. It is proven that social inequality and political coercion were integral parts of public life, and the deprivation of social and property rights became a common practice that fully aligned with Stalinism’s repressive policy toward Ukrainian territories.