Vysoven O. Evangelical Christian Baptists’ Communities of Soviet Ukraine in the Political and Sociocultural Dimensions of the Totalitarian Era (the 1940s-80s).

The work carries out a comprehensive historical analysis of the condition of Evangelical Christian Baptists’ communities of Soviet Ukraine in the political and sociocultural dimensions of the totalitarian era (the 1940s–80s). It presents the religious society and its synergetic model in the time of the communist dictatorship based on the first used archival materials of central, branch, and personal collections with the application of the modern theoretical and methodological framework. The dissertation analyzes the nature, tools, and scale of punitive and repressive measures applied by special services of the Ukrainian SSR to the ECB union members. It comprehends legitimate, moral, and ethical aspects of using psychiatric medicine for atheistic, educational, and correctional purposes by the totalitarian government, as well as educational, scientific, and cultural institutions of the UkrSSR for combating active members of the union and their relatives. Specific examples establish the role of the UkrSSR judicial bodies in atheistic events, demonstrative trials of believers, illegal actions aimed at depriving them of their parental rights and forcibly sending their children to boarding schools. The research demonstrates sociocultural consequences of the repressive policy of the Soviet government towards the members of the ECB of Ukraine, their material and spiritual losses. It provides quantitative and qualitative characterization of convicts and prisoners for their religious beliefs; creates the moral and ethical image of convicts and members of their families, organizers, and participants of the repressions. Insufficiently studied aspects of the problem are outlined, the directions of future research are determined.