Журналы — Народное образование — Выпуск №6/2026

Парадоксальная ситуация в современной образовательной и мемориальной политике Украины: причисление А. С. Макаренко к символике российской имперской политики. Россия и нарратив о «великом русском педагоге».

• А. С. Макаренко • Украина • декоммунизация • НКВД • имперская символика • педагогическое наследие • мемориальная политика • ЮНЕСКО • всемирная слава

What We Fought For, We Ran Into: Anton Makarenko As A Battlefield

Andrey A. Ostapenko, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor at Kuban State University and Yekaterinodar Theological Seminary, Krasnodar, ost101@mail.ru

Abstract: Based on the official conclusion of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (2024), which classified the world-famous teacher A.S. Makarenko as a symbol of Russian imperial policy, the article analyzes the paradoxical situation in contemporary educational and memorial policy of Ukraine. Drawing on an open letter from a group of Ukrainian scholars to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the author shows that the formal application of the “decommunization” law (without distinguishing between punitive and administrative-economic units of the NKVD) has led to an absurd outcome: the savior of thousands of homeless children has found himself in the same row as executioners. Special attention is paid to the motivation of the letter’s authors — their real concern is focused not so much on legal justice, but on the geopolitical belonging of Makarenko’s fame (the fear that Russia will “appropriate” the great Ukrainian). It is concluded that the fight against the totalitarian past by means of total cleansing and excommunication, without distinguishing between essence and form, inevitably turns against the initiators themselves: “What we fought for, we ran into”. The article is addressed to historians of pedagogy, specialists in educational policy, and anyone interested in the fate of classical pedagogy in post-Soviet contexts.

Keywords: Anton Makarenko, Ukraine, decommunization, NKVD, imperial symbolism, pedagogical heritage, memorial policy, UNESCO, world fame