THE HISTORICAL FACULTY OF DROHOBYCH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY DURING THE FIRST POSTWAR YEARS (1944 – 1953)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of organization and activity of the faculty of history of Ivan Franko Drohobych State Pedagogical University in the 1940s – first half of the 1950s. Today in Ukraine an educational reform is being carried out. Historical reflections and objective analysis of the past will help to identify important aspects of development not only of separate branches of education and science, but also the functioning of separate educational institutions, and to take them into account in modern realities.

The main idea of the article is to show the organization and activity of the historic faculty of Drohobych Teachers’ Institute (as the present-day Drohobych University was called) in the 1940s and early 1950s; to describe the student and teacher staff of the faculty, the content of training and education of youth, some aspects of the then everyday life; to trace the influence of the socio-political situation in the region on the work of a higher educational establishment and its subdivisions.

The formation in Drohobych of a higher pedagogical institution was associated with the processes of Sovietization on the western lands of Ukraine. Higher education, especially pedagogical, was an important ideological tool for the Stalinist system, a source of the formation of a new Soviet intelligentsia. The first post-occupational entree plan for students at the Faculty of History was 60 students. It went through difficulties and scored two-thirds of the plan. A small number of secondary school graduates was the reason for the shortage. The youth had 6-7 years of school education after the German occupation. In 1952, the faculty enrolled already 50 students. In the postwar years, Ukrainians prevailed among the students. However, the share of local youth was insignificant due to political reasons. From the mid-40’s to the mid-50’s of the twentieth century only 830 teachers-historians were trained at the faculty.

In 1946, the staff of the Department of History, which provided teaching at the Faculty of History, comprised 2 teachers. In the first post-war years P. Kozik, V. Tychyna, V. Tryhub, O. Zaichenko, I. Kosharnyi, P. Marunya, O. Dybenko, I. Lisinchuk worked at the department. At the beginning of the work, none of the members of the department staff had a degree or an academic rank. In 1950 P. Kozik defended his Ph. D. thesis.

Initially, in the content of education the communist party ideology was prevalent, which was implemented into curricula, programs, and manuals. The students were subjected to ideological treatment, the selection was held in respect of political confidence.

The conditions of life and work in the first postwar years were complicated. The situation slowly improved.

The Historical Faculty had began its work in 1940 and renewed its activities after the German occupation. During the first postwar years, students and departments of the faculty were gradually formed and the everyday life became settled. The communist party ideology of education and training, neglect of national-spiritual traditions, repressive measures of the power regarding students and teachers negatively affected the training of teachers.