Healing with Humanism: Fostering Secular Spirituality in Sukhomlynsky’s 'School of Joy'

• In Event: Atheism and Secular Spirituality in the Soviet Union

Abstract

For people who recently survived the atrocities of WWII and shocking revelations of destalinization, humanism in its different interpretations became the new source of solidarity and solace. The renewed interest in humanism in the postwar era was a worldwide phenomenon. One of its aspects in the Soviet Union was the desire to reintegrate into the universal humanistic tradition and to reconnect with world culture. It was popular to trace the heritage of socialist humanism to the Renaissance and the Antiquity it revived. Especially strong was interest in the writings of the Renaissance humanists Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella, whose utopias provided food for thought on harmonizing individual happiness with collective wellbeing.
Vasyl Sukhomlynsky the renowned Soviet Ukrainian teacher and school principal considered humanism the cornerstone of education. Building a team of empathetic and passionate teachers he created his own little utopia in the Ukrainian village of Pavlysh, where he was appointed a school principal soon after WWII. In tune with the Renaissance ideas the school in Pavlysh saw its mission in helping students become happy, engaged, well-rounded human beings. The initial impulse behind the “School of Joy,” as the parents of Sukhomlynsky’s students christened it, was the desire to heal the children from the trauma of war. It was the purpose of the school to give them back their childhood, to restore their belief in kindness and justice, and to make them feel human again.

Author

• Anna Valeri Aydinyan, Kenyon College