Tarahnenko L. Religious communities of ethnic minorities in Ukraine (1990 - 2000 years)

The thesis is devoted to the complex research on problems of the situation of religious communities of ethnic minorities of Ukraine in conditions of social transformations of 1990 - 2000. The work is based on a wide literary source basis. The formation of communal environment of independent Ukraine was researched; the influence of democratic reforms of the revival of ethnic religious communities was shown. The slow spread of collective forms of religious life among Ukrainian ethnic communities is associated with a small number of believers, ignoring religious traditions, especially on the part of the youth and emigration of population. The author indicated that despite these tendencies, the revival of religious life of minorities of Ukraine was gradually gaining momentum - from existing informal communities and individual venerating the traditions by faithful to registration of consolidated religious communities and nearly constant structure of religious institutions. The author proved that the evolution of religious life in the country, the need to eradicate the negative effects of anti-church policy and public demand of communal situation normalization in the independent Ukraine influenced the adoption of laws on freedom of conscience and religious organizations in early 1990. The author made known that along with government institutions, spiritual centers, leaders of religious communities and members of the communities themselves tried to care of the religious rights of ethnic minorities. The author analyzed that during the research period there were quantitative changes in ethnic and religious environment of Ukraine and that the geographical location of communities transformed. The main tendency of the Catholic Church in the post-Soviet era was spreading its influence among the Polish population outside its community traditional residence in western Ukraine. The specific tendency for the development of Protestantism in Ukraine, combined different branches of Russians, Hungarians and Germans, was the gradually achieving the church status by the majority Protestant denominations. The spread of Islam in the country was due to the immigration of Muslims - as representatives of non-indigenous for Ukraine ethnic groups of traditional observance of Islamic religious beliefs as well as repatriation of Crimean Tatars. The structure of religious communities and their place in religious organizations were discovered. The fields of activities of the faithful ethnical communities of Ukraine, namely the renovation and construction of religious architectures, especially the operation of religious schools, social service of religious communities and their participation in cultural and educational activities were determined.