REFORMING EDUCATION IN UKRAINE IN 1917–1921: DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF THE UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENTS, ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE OLD SCHOOL AND TO «BOLSHEVIZE» IT

Abstract

The paper describes the difficulties that the reform of the Ukrainian education faced in 1917–1921, during the Ukrainian Revolution period. The consolidated efforts of the Ukrainian authorities (Central Council of Ukraine, Hetmanate, and Directorate of Ukrainian People's Republic) aimed at Ukrainization of education, its decentralization, and establishment of a degree-based education system were hindered by the historical inertia and clinging to the imperial school practices, as well as inability of the debilitated Ukrainian government to effectively extend its power to all the territory of the Ukrainian republic. The political forces that strived to restore the old ways or pursued a radical redesign of society based on the socialist ideology directly opposed the education reform in Ukraine. In particular, there were the anti-Ukrainian efforts of Anton Denikin and his army, Bolsheviks that were active in Ukraine and stood for the political unity of Ukraine and Russia. The local leaders, which had very different stances on the education reform, wielded significant influence over the different regions of Ukraine, thus preventing the local Ukrainian authorities from growing stronger. Post-war poverty also had an adverse effect on education reform in Ukraine. It was not possible to allocate enough to finance the education. Extreme poverty of the teachers even drove some of them to suicide. However, the decisive factor that impeded the reform of education in our country was a lack of cultural border with the soviet Russia that, in the opinion of the contemporary researchers, should have been put in place together with the territorial and political border. Although the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to reform education were not successful in 1917–1921, they provide a sound foundation for the current reforms in Ukraine.