Relations between teachers of agricultural and other universities, and authorities of Ukraine during the second half of the 1950s - the middle of the 1960s

Abstract

The topicality of the problem of relations between the intelligentsia and the authorities is due to the objective processes in modern education and the reforms that are constantly taking place in higher education. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship of the scientific and pedagogical intelligentsia with the authorities. The intelligentsia of Soviet Ukraine was dependent on the authorities because the state was the monopoly employer. Control over the scientific and pedagogical intelligentsia and people of creative professions took place through membership in the Communist Party, creative unions, and their further involvement in responsible projects. Due to their publicity the activities of the teaching staff largely depended on loyalty to the Communist Party. The high attention of the authorities to the workers of higher education is also explained by the fact that it was they who actually were the creators of the skilled personnel of almost the entire Soviet intelligentsia. In a state of a totalitarian type the social and professional perspective of each individual was possible only in conditions of political loyalty. The political consciousness of teachers was assessed by the volume of loyal references to the Communist Party and Soviet power in lectures, reports and publications. The teachers’ lectures were stenographed twice a year and tested for loyalty. Also important was the public function of lecturing on current events for the general population in residential areas, houses of culture, etc. In fact, it was a load the rejection of which would be considered as anti-Sovietism. Nevertheless, in these harsh and regulated conditions, in a narrow circle of communication with students, in families, etc. an illegal mass critical view of the intelligentsia on the political system was born, which, after 25 years, grew into an open confrontation and the victory of democracy.