Yaroslav Fedoruk's scientific and administrative activities under the conditions of the crisis of the soviet system (1960 - 1980s)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyse the formation of Yaroslav Fedorchuk as the Soviet public and political figure with a projection to the present, clarification of diverse aspects of his participation in the industrial development of the Carpathian region, highlighting the contribution to the economic concept formation “the more economy is strengthened – the better is for the welfare growth of people”. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and systematicity. The following methods have been used: general scientific (analysis and synthesis, abstraction) and specifically scientific (critical, biographical and prosopographic). The scientific novelty consists in the fact that in 1972, in his studies a young scholar and practitioner Ya. Fedorchuk focused on the issues of improving the economy centralized management in order to boost a social welfare of population. In his candidate’s thesis under the title “Effectiveness of New Technology under NTR Conditions” the scholar questioned the basis of the centralized planning – the development rate of production means (group A) should be higher than the development rate of consumption means (group B). The Conclusion. Taking into account the specifics of the western region of the Ukrainian SSR, the union and republican leadership focused on the strengthening of ideological and political work among population, the fight against “bourgeois nationalism”, “religious remnants”. However, the citizens’ position – whether to soften or increase the pressure – directly depended on the leaders of a lower and middle (regional) level of management. All spheres of the socio-political and socio-economic life were permeated by excessive ideologization and total control. The policy of Moscow leadership in Ukraine did not achieve the desired results, both due to a passive and active resistance of the population as a whole, and due to the balanced policy of the individual party-Soviet leaders on the ground. The Ukrainian people managed to preserve the eternal spiritual values under the difficult conditions of totalitarianism owing to the ascetic work of the intelligentsia, whose bright representative was the intellectual and pragmatist Yaroslav Petrovych Fedorchuk. He did no less than those, who started an open struggle against the totalitarian system. The local population got jobs, received free housing, social guarantees, there were built schools, kindergartens, recreation camps, sanatoriums, preventive clinics, rural hospitals, and midwifery centres in the second half of the 20th century.