Everydayness of the Ukrainian village in the conditions of the nazi occupation regime of 1941–1943 (on the materials of the left bank of Cherkash)

The purpose of this investigation is to find out the main features of everyday life in the Ukrainian countryside under the Nazi occupation regime and to substantiate the provisions of its terrorist and misanthropic nature on the basis of archival and published sources, oral history, in the context of local wartime events. We can see it in the introduction into scientific circulation of hitherto unknown archival and narrative sources, the publication of new facts of regional history on this basis, and the presence of original interpretive constructions. According to the empirical material, the everyday life of the villages of the Left Bank of Cherkasy region under the Nazi occupation regime, despite certain peculiarities, generally fit into the all-Ukrainian context of that extraordinary era. Many villagers fell victim to Nazi terror, were subjected to forced deportations and all sorts of restrictions. The occupiers considered the village as the primary source of replenishment of the Reich’s food resources, so they pursued a policy of shameless looting, inhuman exploitation, and deportation. The reform of agriculture declared by them was not realized due to the prevalence of Ukrainophobic intentions in the occupation policy. In the field of educational and cultural life, the occupiers consistently pursued a line of deintellectualization and spiritual zombies of Ukrainians. The facts of local origin presented in the article convincingly consistently reveal the anti-Ukrainian and inhumane nature of the Nazi occupation regime. The everyday life of the village at that time was characterized by the emergence of the problems of survival of the peasants under the occupation pressure. Given the epistemological prospects of the topic discussed in this article, it needs further study and diversification based on the involvement of new facts of regional history.

Source: Golysh G., Lysytsya L. (2022) Everydayness of the Ukrainian village in the conditions of the nazi occupation regime of 1941–1943 (on the materials of the left bank of Cherkash). Ukrainian peasant. 27: 11-18

Source web-site: https://ukr-selianyn-ejournal.cdu.edu.ua/article/view/4693/4945