Censorship Control of the Works by M.Hrushevskyi and V. Vynnychenko in the UkrSSR

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to highlight the practice of censoring the works of M.Hrushevskyi and V.Vynnychenko in the UkrSSR.

The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, scientificity, system. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used historicalgenetic, problem-chronological, source analysis, retrospective, analytical.

The scientific novelty and conclusions. Consists in a comprehensive coverage of the Soviet practice of censoring the works of M.Hrushevskyi and V.Vynnychenko in UkrSSR, as well as the introduction of a number of archival sources into scientific circulation. It is stated that the works of M.Hrushevskyi and V.Vynnychenko as enemies of the communist regime were censored throughout the Soviet period. The authors shows that the first large-scale confiscations by the bodies of censorship of the works of M.Hrushevskyi was carried out in 1920–1923 in the context of the control of Ukrainian literature, which came from abroad. It is indicated that the works of V.Vynnychenko and M.Hrushevskyi were published in the UkrSSR and were even relatively available in scientific libraries. At the stage of the 1930s, V.Vynnychenko’s books were withdrawn and destroyed as a result of spontaneous library “purges”. It is established that the centralized restriction of publications of these authors began after the World War II. The works of these individuals were seized during the “purges” of the library and bookselling network, in particular the bouquinistes market. In the second half of the 1940s, all books authored by M.Hrushevskyi and V.Vynnychenko were completely banned and transferred for storage to library special funds. The main argument regarding the restriction of the authors’ books was their belonging to the “bourgeois-nationalist camp”. Censorship also forbade referring to the works of M.Hrushevskyi and including them in bibliographic and reference-encyclopaedic issues. As a result, the scientist’s works fell out of scientific circulation, as it was restricted until the end of the 1970s, in particular, on the basis of oral orders from regulatory authorities. V.Vynnychenko’s works were in special funds almost until the last moment of the existence of communist censorship institutions. The writer’s creative legacy became available only in 1989.