Lecturers and Students of Kyiv Higher Institute of People’s Education in the Early 1920s in the Context of the System of Soviet Ideological Control

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, intellectuals as holders of knowledge, ideology and historical experience, were under systematic and constant pressure. Special attention was paid to political control over higher education institutions, particularly in Kyiv. This control concerned reorganization of Ukrainian universities (Russian universities were not reorganised). That is why particular attention should be paid to higher education changes during the early totalitarism period. Kyiv University served as a basis for establishment of Kyiv Higher Institute of People’s Education and other educational institutions. Besides, there was political and ideological purge of teachers and students at the same time. The forms of control over lecturers were detailed questionnaires and reports. Such famous scientists as Hryhoriy Pavlutskiy, Klyment Kvitka, and others were among those lectures. Students were controlled through commissions on political level checks (political registration). Those commissions were the ones that carried out a purge in 1921–1923s. All those actions changed the political and ideological situation in Kyiv Higher Institute of People’s Education.The subject matter of this article is to show forms and methods of control over the lecturers and students in Kyiv Higher Institute of People’s Education. The main sources used in the article are the documents of the fund P-346 (R-346) of the State Archives of Kyiv.