Page 248 - 4331

first time, the article, which legally vested a
leading and directing role of the Communist
Party in society, appeared. The Communist
Party was considered to be “the nucleus of the
USSR political system”, thus, confirming its
monopoly for power. The Constitution of the
USSR corrected the programme goal – the
construction of developed socialism, which
was considered to be the first step on the way
to communism construction.
January, 22 Oleksa Hirnyk, a resident of Kalush, burnt
1978 himself alive at T. Shevchenko’s tomb in
Kaniv, protesting against repressions against
Ukrainian people.
April, 20 The Supreme Council of Ukrainian Soviet
1978 Socialist Republic approved the new
Constitution of USSR; its text was almost
identical to the Constitution of the USSR. The
main statements were of declarative character.
October, 13 The Council of Ministers of the USSR
1978 adopted the regulation “About measures to
improve the level of the Russian language
teaching in union republics”. It proposed to
begin learning Russian since preschool age.
November, 11 The directive of the Collegiums of the
1978 Ministry of Education of Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic “Improvement the level of
the Russian language teaching in secondary
schools of the republic”. The process of
russification intensified. In 1973 a demand to
write dissertation theses in Russian was
introduced. The Ukrainian language was
squeezed out of scientific use. In 1976 V.

246