Anti-Ukrainian Policy in Teaching of History of Ukraine under Minister D. Tabachnyk (2010 – early 2014)
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the anti-Ukrainian policy in teaching History disciplines under the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine D. Tabachnyk (2010 – early 2014). Studying the ideological offensive is critical to identifying and countering similar threats in the future. For this purpose, a retrospective analysis of D. Tabachnyk’s activities is carried out and the stages and methods of his destructive actions are highlighted.
The scientific novelty is in the study of D. Tabachnyk’s anti-Ukrainian policy in the field of teaching History disciplines. The stages of the destructive activities of the Minister of Education and Science, who directed all the power of the administrative apparatus of the state to the destruction of Ukrainian identity, first of all, in the teaching of History disciplines, are highlighted.
Conclusions. In the course of the research, it has been found out that the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, D. Tabachnyk, during the presidency of V. Yanukovych, performed systematic measures to destroy the Ukrainian national identity and introduce the ideas of the ‘Russian World’ into the teaching of History disciplines. For this purpose, a number of ideological subversions were carried out: 1) operation ‘joint history textbook’ for schoolchildren (2010); 2) operation ‘joint guidebook’ for History teachers (2010-2012); 3) revision of History disciplines curricula with the aim of de-Ukrainization of the younger generation of Ukrainians, which was accompanied by the removal of the concepts of ‘Ukraine’, ‘Ukrainian state’ and the historical figures of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Taras Shevchenko, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka – symbols of Ukraine from the curricula (2012 ); 4) a significant reduction in time on studying the fateful events of national history in the propaedeutic course of History (2012); 5) revision of the External Independent Evaluation provisions and removal from them the members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists S. Bandera and R. Shukhevych (2013); 6) an introduction of Soviet personalities Petrovskyi, Piatakov, Shchors, and Khrushchov to the ZNO (2013).
The activities of the Minister of Education and Science D. Tabachnyk caused significant damage to the teaching of History disciplines in Ukraine. Main goal of his actions was the dissolution of Ukrainian identity and the leveling of national values. The younger generation of Ukrainians was instilled with disdain for their country, its history, and its culture. Instead, attempts were made to include Ukraine in the orbit of the ‘Russian World’ through the imposition of inferiority. However, D. Tabachnyk’s anti-Ukrainian policy encountered public opposition and was not very successful.
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