Changes in the attitude of the state and civil society towards the religious-ecclesiastical sphere, with the simultaneous abandonment of atheism as a component of official ideology, lead us to consider religiosity as a historical form of consciousness. In addition, the relevance of the topic of the thesis is due to the need to rethink the role of the Bolshevik regime in the history of Ukraine of the twentieth century. Therefore, the history of religiosity of the Ukrainian peasantry of the Upper Dnipro regions during the second half of the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth century is the subject of a special study for the first time, and acts as an independent and holistic problem of historical science. The author conducted an impartial and thorough analysis of the transformation of the religiosity of the Ukrainian peasantry, taking into account the factors that determined its main tendencies. A wide range of sources that have not previously been used by researchers to understand the religiosity (inner world, consciousness) of the Ukrainian peasantry have been worked out and brought to scientific circulation. The basis of the source base for the dissertation is archival materials, ethnographic field studies, as well as periodicals. During the writing process, the materials of the Central State Archives of the State authorities and Ukraine’s administration in Kyiv, the Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine in Kyiv, the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv, and several regional state archives, were also processed as well as the Russian State Historical Archives in St. Petersburg, the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Art Studies, Folklore Studies and Ethnology named after M. Rylsky in Kyiv, and SSU Branch-Wise State Archive.
For the first time in historiography the religiosity of the Ukrainian peasantry of the Upper Dnipro region of the second half of the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth century was investigates as a subject of special historical research, an independent and holistic scientific problem. The author traced the essence of this generally traditional phenomenon, the tendencies of its transformation taking into account historical, social, psychological and, most importantly, political factors. In conditions where the religiosity of the peasantry was characterized by low dynamics, at the same time, a rather high level of syncretism, it was the latter that was the largest «destroyer» of traditional religiosity at the stage of the formation of a totalitarian regime. Comprehensive study of the problem has allowed to deepen knowledge of crisis phenomena during the second half of the nineteenth – first third of the twentieth century that were observed in Orthodoxy, especially its official version, represented by the Russian Orthodox Church. They found themselves in search of a part of the Ukrainian peasants of the «renewed» Christian faith. However, the traditional religiosity was not ruined by personal choice of faith, but by the political regime. Before experiencing a «big change» in the early 1930's in the socio-economic sphere, the Ukrainian peasantry had to be «upgraded» in the religious realm – to abandon belief in God.
