Theoretical basis of research of the process of formation of police bodies in the Western Ukrainian lands in 1944-1953

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of the study is to analyze the works of Soviet and modern Ukrainian scientists, which reveal the process of formation and specifics of the police in Western Ukraine in the postwar decade. Methods. The methodological basis of the study was a set of general scientific, special scientific and philosophical methods, as well as the principles of historicism and objectivity. The key was the historiographical method and comparative approach, which allowed to identify key approaches and trends in the study of the process of creation and operation of police bodies in Western Ukraine in the first postwar decades. Results. It is established that the scientific works which reveal the process of creation of the Soviet authorities in the western Ukrainian lands, in particular the militia, were formed on the basis of several subjective factors, which were especially evident in the Soviet period. So, first, they were usually timed to coincide with certain events related to the anniversaries of the police and the Communist Party; as a «leading and guiding force»; second, they were all based on Marxist-Leninist methodology; thirdly, they have a one-sided «positive» character, although they give an idea of the main activities of the police; fourth, they do not cover the causes of repression, and even if they do, only as a «fight against criminal and anti-Soviet» criminal elements. In the conditions of Ukraine’s statehood, the departure from ideological dogmas, as well as access to a large array of previously inaccessible to a wide range of researchers archival material made it possible to find new conceptual approaches to objectively cover the history of Soviet police in Ukraine. Scientific novelty. The analysis of the main theoretical and historical-legal approaches to the disclosure of the process of creation and activity of police bodies in the western Ukrainian lands in the conditions of the second wave of Sovietization is given. Practical significance. The results of the preliminaries can be obtained from the previous history and legal preliminaries, preparatory special courses.