Civilizational Visions in Historical and Pedagogical Studies of Ukrainian Scientists of the Soviet Era (1920s–1980s)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of latent civilizational visions in the historical and pedagogical studies of Ukrainian scientists of the Soviet era (1920–1980s). Based on the involvement of a wide range of works by historians of pedagogy, the features of the formation and functioning of civilizational ideas within the framework of an ideologically conditioned scientific discourse are revealed. It is established that despite the dominance of the formational approach, civilizational markers associated with the understanding of the "East – West" dichotomy, the role of Russia/USSR in the world historical process and the place of the Ukrainian pedagogical tradition in a broader cultural context are implicitly traced in the texts of researchers. It was found that in the 1920s, historical and pedagogical thought still retained elements of openness to Western European experience, while from the 1930s, a distinct anti-Western narrative was formed, reaching its peak in the post-war period. It was proved that important components of Soviet civilizational constructs were the ideas of Slavic unity and Russian messianism, which served as ideological legitimization of the leading role of the USSR. At the same time, ambivalence in assessments of the West was revealed, which manifested itself in a combination of criticism and recognition of its importance as a source of Marxist theory and individual cultural influences. The methodological basis of the study was the civilizational approach, the principles of historicism, systematicity, methods of historiographic analysis, content analysis and discourse analysis, which allowed reconstructing the hidden semantic structures of the Ukrainian historical and pedagogical narrative of the outlined period. The scientific novelty lies in the isolation and systematic analysis of civilizational visions as an important, but insufficiently researched component of Ukrainian historical and pedagogical thought of the Soviet period.