Education issue under the conditions of the Russian occupation of Eastern Galicia and Northern Bukovyna (1914 - 1917)

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of the study is to analyze and characterize formation and organization principles of educational policy of the Russian occupation authorities in Eastern Galicia and Northern Bukovyna during World War I. The research methodology is based on general principles of historical knowledge, which in its turn is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity, scientificity, verification, authorial objectivity, reliance on historical sources. Both general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, method of analogies), special and historical (historiographic, historical and genetic, historical periodization, retrospective) methods have been used in the research. The scientific novelty consists in characteristics of formation process and elucidation of general trends of the Russian educational system introduction in the occupied territories during the period under analysis. Scientific publications and archival documents that supplement historical knowledge of the outlined issues have been introduced into a wider historiographical context by analyzing the main components of the Russian authorities policy in the field of education. TheConclusion. It has been elucidated in detail that the education issue was one of the constituent parts of Russification and the struggle of the Russian authorities against the Ukrainian national movement. It has been determined that the presence of official Ukrainian school in the Austro-Hungarian Empire complicated the fight against “Ukrainian separatism” in the Russian Empire. The Russian occupation would make it possible to destroy the nucleus of the Ukrainian national movement hostile to Russia and to establish the Russian national identity in the occupied lands. It has been found out that the use of the education issue to strengthen the Russian occupation power in Eastern Galicia and Northern Bukovyna during the period of 1914 – 1917 led to the opposite of expected results mostly. Politicization and unreasoned actions of the Russian officials, as well as persecution of the local intellectual elite, not only did not increase the number of supporters of Russia, but also discredited it seriously.