Проблеми сучасної психології (Jan 2017)
Psychological peculiarities of the Soviet past of Ukraine in the representations of modern student youth.
Abstract
Contemporary trends in studying memory about the Soviet past in the human sciences are analyzed in this article. The results of a survey of Lviv student youth, which was conducted by the method of a semi-structured indepth interview, are proposed. The purpose of the survey was to determine the psychological peculiarities of the image of the Soviet past of Ukraine among the representatives of the first post-Soviet generation as a prism in their attitude toward the current situation in Ukraine and its potential European future in a situation where the approving and implementation of Decommunization Acts became an additional factor in actualizing the discussions about the Soviet past. On the basis of analysis of interviews’ transcripts two main criteria, which characterize the attitude toward the Soviet past among people, which haven’t any experience of living in Soviet Union were defined. They are: the family context, which appears in the «memoirs» about the Soviet past, and which presupposes the presence of memory’s elements about the Soviet past in the family ambience of informant and certainty or uncertainty in his assessments of the Soviet past. Five main types of attitudes of Ukrainian youth to the Soviet past of Ukraine were identified on the basis of these criteria: the position of a certain positive or negative assessment, the position of uncertain assessment, the position of abstract certain interest and the position of declarative interest. Each of the types was characterized by the description of it’s cognitive (the idea of informants about the Soviet reality); emotional (positive or negative emotional context in which these ideas were presented) and behavioral (attitudes towards Decommunization Acts and plans of the informant about his future inside or outside of Ukraine) peculiarities.
