Starka V. Everyday life of western Ukrainian village under the conditions of totalitarian regimes of 1939–1953.

Analysis of previous works of the researchers devoted to the history of the Western Ukrainian population made it possible to make a conclusion about the absence of a complex study on the daily life history of rural residents of the region. Reconstruction of everyday life requires from researchers to use not only classical sources such as archival documentary materials or periodical publications of that time, but also rather specific ones: memories of eyewitnesses, folklore, rumors, things of personal origin, etc. The research was based on general scientific principles of historical authenticity, systematicity, objectivity, scientificity. General scientific, transdisciplinary and historical methods of scientific knowledge were used in the preparation of the thesis research. The accession of the territory of Western Ukraine to the USSR in September 1939 led to the beginning of profound transformations of socio-political, socio-economic and cultural-educational life of the inhabitants of the region. Arriving in the villages of the West Ukrainian region under the democratic slogans of equality and fraternity, the Soviet authorities in a very short time established a one-party dictatorship, and local self-government bodies, formed through "democratic" elections, did not express the interests to the broad peasant masses, but were blind executors of the will of the senior leadership of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks and an instrument of intense class struggle. It was found that during the Sovietization of the western regions of the USSR significant changes occurred in the cultural and educational life of the region. In September 1939 the Soviet government changed the system of education completely. The education was proclaimed to be free and compulsory for the children of school age. At the same time, the functioning of private and religious educational institutions was prohibited, and also the church was excommunicated from the educational process. Considerable effort was put by the Soviet government to eliminate illiteracy among adults. During the years of Nazi occupation of the land, the German authority allowed the work of rural primary schools and few trade schools for training the low-skilled workers to fulfill the needs for manpower in industry and agriculture. With the comeback of the Soviet government in 1944 the Soviet educational transformations continued. Through the mediation of educational establishments the totalitarian system was trying to impose new life principles on the Western Ukrainian peasantry. Based on the processing of the sources it was stated that the health care in the Western Ukrainian villages during the investigated period was in a very poor condition. Epidemics of typhoid and rash fever prevailed in the villages and many people had tuberculosis and venereal diseases. The Soviet government opened the rural dispensaries but due to the lack of skilled workers and improper material and technical support doctors couldn’t provide the qualified medical help in the villages of the region. The cities remained the centers of the qualified medical services. Due to the fact that peasants didn’t have sufficient funds to go to the cities for treatment, in the Western Ukrainian villages different sorcerers and herbalists remained popular. Most of the rural population continued to pursue self-medication and folk medicine.