Vashkevych V. Formation and Development of Historical Consciousness of Student Youth in Ukraine at the Time of Social Transformation (Social and Philosophical analysis)

A phenomenon of historical consciousness of youth in modern Ukrainian transformational society is explores in the dissertation. The historical consciousness is seen as a relatively independent component of the public consciousness of the human, and, as such, from one side, it has general characteristics of the latter; from the other side, it has its qualitative characteristics riding on the specificity of comprehension of the historical process, awareness about its essence, course of events, customs, ideas and historical theories. Specific components of historical consciousness of Ukrainian youth (memory, dominant assessments of the past, activity motivation, attitude towards customs, etc.) are analyzed in the dissertation. An attempt of scientific evaluation of the quality of this phenomenon under modern conditions is made; main contradictions, factors and sources of development of historical consciousness of modern Ukrainian youth are indicated; prospects for targeted influence on this process by means of science, education and upbringing are analyzed; ways of increasing efficiency of modern historical education are displayed; possibilities for educating historical consciousness of youth by extracurricular activities and a role and task of mass media and institutes of culture in this process are identified.