The German Minority of Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s: Review of Modern Domestic Historiography

Abstract

The article is devoted to a historiographic review of the works of modern Ukrainian researchers, the pages of which characterize the life and position of the German minority in Soviet Ukraine in the 1920ʼs and 1930ʼs. It is argued that after our country gained state independence, in connection with the intensification of research on previously hushed up topics, the issues of the situation of national minorities in Ukraine, in particular in Soviet times, began to appear in the field of view of historians: scientific studies began to appear concerning the study of the past of the largest national minorities of Ukraine, among which one of the dominant places was occupied by the Germans. It is noted that at present, the domestic historiographic discourse of the history of the Germans who lived on the territory of Soviet Ukraine in the interwar period has a significant amount of scientific research. The geographical boundaries of the scientific works of researchers of the life of Ukrainian Germans are characterized. It was found that they covered both the territory of the entire republic and individual regions, in particular, with a compact residence of representatives of the studied national minority. It is noted that part of the scientific works in which the problem of the situation of the Germans was raised was devoted to the analysis of the life of the national minorities of Ukraine in their totality. A number of issues are highlighted that historians touched upon in the study of the German minority, namely: the peculiarities of the economic activity of the Germans, the problems accompanying the transformation of the traditional economic structure within the German settlements during collectivization, survival in hunger years, details of everyday life, the processes of Sovietization, socio-cultural changes, repression of the Bolshevik regime against the Germans. It has been established that the problem of the history of Ukrainian Germans has not yet lost its attractiveness since its actualization in the mid-90ʼs of XX century, as evidenced by the study of new aspects of the topic over the past decades by an increasing number of scientists.