Proletkult, Ukrainization and Ukrainian Culture.

The aim. To analyse the position and influence of Proletkult and the policy of Ukrainization on the development of Ukrainian culture amidst the establishment of the Bolshevik totalitarian regime. Novelty. The study offers a re‑evaluation of the impact of Bolshevik cultural experiments, specifically the ideology of Proletkult and the policy of Ukrainization, on Ukrainian society and national culture. It illuminates the tragic human experience of the era, largely unreflected in official art, and demonstrates the resilience of Ukrainian culture despite pervasive politicisation and repression. Methods. The analysis is grounded in a historical-cultural approach, employing critical interpretation of the ideological concepts of Proletkult and Ukrainization, alongside a synthesis of historiographical research by Ukrainian scholars. Conclusions. The communist cultural experiments of the interwar period, aimed at dismantling the «old» and constructing a «new proletarian» culture, were ultimately doomed to failure due to the suppression of creative freedom and total ideological control. Despite considerable losses, Ukrainian culture managed to endure and preserve its national core, not because of, but in defiance of these experiments. A crucial factor in safeguarding national traditions was its «dual‑track» development: simultaneously within the totalitarian USSR (where all national elements were suppressed) and in the Western Ukrainian territories (prior to their Sovietisation) and the dias