UKRAINE IN WORLD WAR II: “THE PROBLEM OF CHOICE” IN THE BACKGROUND OF CIVILIZATION AND IDEOLOGICAL CONFRONTATION (SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE MICRO-LEVEL SOCIAL HISTORY)

Abstract

The situation of individual human choice is simulated in the context of the socio-historical approach. “The problem of choice” is considered by the author of polemical notes on a background of military and civilizational and ideological confrontation that took place in Ukraine during the Second World War in 1939–1945. It is analyzed priorities, external factors and circumstances which, according to the researcher, cause a situation of choice for the person as an individual strategy for survival. Historically civilization choice for the Ukrainians has always been tough and complicated by its unique geopolitical position. In 1939–1945 this choice of the Ukrainian society was complicated by the coexistence of two totalitarian systems. Among the reasons, that have intensifi ed the problem of choosing in niche of pro-German sentiments of the population before and during the war, should be noted the following: widespread citizens’ dissatisfaction with the public policy of the Soviet regime, repression of pre-war time, a massive Nazi propaganda, national aspirations of conscious Ukrainians, widespread belief in justice, punctuality and rationality of the German nation. The brutal reality of the Nazi «new order», an activation of Soviet resistance movement and massive Moscow propaganda have intensified pro-Soviet segment in public sentiments of the occupied society. The collapse of the expectations of a part of the population on the loyalty of the Germans of the national state-building aspirations of the Ukrainians, the suppression of any attempts of Institutional Renewal of an independent movement, the development of nationalist vector of the resistance movement on the background of active anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet propaganda of the OUN and UPA have intensified Ukrainian independent segment of socio-political choices of the Ukrainians. The majority of the population of the occupied regions of Ukraine have chosen the path of loyalty. Because of the brutal exploitation of the colonial regime, the loyalty to Ukraine has gained particular forms. The most prevalent was so-called forced «economic collaboration», when the main motive of cooperation with the occupiers was the need of physical survival under occupation and artificial hunger. The range of policy instruments used by the Nazis ranged from hidden threats and terror to flirting with a population, visibility of nationally-oriented policy, material promotion of certain categories of citizens, overtly propagandistic measures. The occupation policy aff ected the choice of strategies diff erence among diff erent groups of the Soviet Ukrainian Society in 1941–1944. The intelligentsia and nationally conscious citizens provoked visibility of loyalty to the recent displays of Ukrainian national life to cooperate with the Nazis. Ukrainian peasants in its circle mass believed the promises of land reform and therefore, at the beginning of the occupation, started active cooperation with the new government. Technical intellectuals and specialists in industrial production, were left without means of subsistence, but agreed to take proposed positions. The masses of workers, employees and simply unemployed people had to obey the rules and work on the occupier. Loyalty to existing regime proved a defining principle of individual survival strategies of population during 1939–1945, outlined actions of Soviet annexation in western Ukraine, the military actions on the Soviet-German front, the Nazi occupation and the restoration of Soviet domination in the end of World War II.