The Director of the Institute of Sociology speaks at the session of the General Meeting of the Department of History, Philosophy and Law of the NAS of Ukraine

On 29 April 2025 the session of the General Meeting of the Department of History, Philosophy and Law of the NAS of Ukraine was held, devoted to the results of the research work of the Department's institutions in 2024 and to the prospects for developing fundamental and applied research in the social sciences and humanities.

A scholarly paper was delivered at the session by the Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine Ye. I. Golovakha.

In his paper he stressed, among other things, that the Russian-Ukrainian war has brought the Ukrainian people enormous suffering and catastrophic damage to the economy, infrastructure and environment. At the same time this war has substantially affected social structures and processes, confirming the view of the classic sociologist Pitirim Sorokin that the upheavals of war are able not only to destroy but also to foster certain positive social changes.

Thus, whereas ten years ago Ukrainian society was in a state of chaotic transformation with an indistinct vector of development and a postponed post-Soviet transit, today, as a result of resistance to full-scale aggression, society has clearly settled in favour of a European civilisational course. The ambivalence of public attitudes has disappeared and the Soviet legacy has been definitively delegitimised.

A national-civic identity has taken shape and become dominant. Today about 80% of citizens identify themselves first and foremost as citizens of Ukraine rather than as residents of particular regions or settlements or as citizens of the former USSR. More than 80% of respondents also declare Ukrainian to be the language of their everyday communication.

Substantial shifts have taken place in the social structure. In particular, the deep social gulf between the privileged strata (the “caste of the untouchables”) and the rest of society has narrowed — keeping unjustly acquired privileges is becoming ever harder. The regional differences that were especially palpable before the war have been largely overcome.

Ukraine's lack of agency has been overcome. Before the war Ukrainians often devalued their state's agency in international politics. Today Ukraine is an active player in world politics and is perceived as a weighty and active subject of it.

One important change was also the overcoming of the so-called “East Slavic separateness” to which the sociologist N. V. Panina once pointed. Today Ukraine has distanced itself socioculturally from Russia and Belarus and has grown closer to the Central European Slavic nations.

If before the war Ukraine was often characterised as a “society without trust”, the situation has now changed substantially. Sociological research records a high level of trust in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the President, the Security Service, the volunteer movement and the church. Trust in other institutions has also risen to a degree. Although we still lag behind the developed democracies on this indicator, one can no longer speak of a complete crisis of trust. As numerous studies show, the level of trust correlates directly with the level of a society's democratic development.

Would all these transformations have taken place without the war? Most probably yes — but exceedingly slowly, over the lifetimes of several generations. The war has radically accelerated social change.

At the same time the war has given rise to new lines of division between social groups, which in the post-war period may threaten serious tensions and conflicts. These processes already require careful analysis and anticipation, and the attention of state institutions.

The French sociologist Michel Crozier introduced into scholarly use the notion of “sociological intervention” — the active involvement of sociology in social life through critical reflection, constructive participation and the development of solutions for overcoming social problems. Today we must widen this concept and speak of the need for a “social-science intervention” — the active participation of all the social sciences and humanities in the complex, contradictory and dynamic processes of the further transformation of Ukrainian society.