Stages of the destruction of the ethnic identity of Ukrainians in the process of mobilization into the Russian Army under the recruitment system

At the end of the eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century, the Russian army in Ukraine became a powerful means of assimilating its population. A significant Russian-speaking military contingent contributed to the spread of the Russian language among rural and urban residents. However, the most effective means of assimilation was the recruitment duty that was introduced to the Ukrainian population in the 90s of the eighteenth century. It turned out to be the most difficult of all state duties because it forever took fathers, sons, and brothers away from Ukrainian families. And the method of recruitment was reminiscent of the Tatars' seizure of the yasyr, when people were tied up and driven into captivity. The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze the factors that caused Ukrainians to lose their ethnic identity and had an assimilative effect on them during recruitment. The methodological basis of the study is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and scientificity. Their implementation is complemented by the methods of historical and psychological reconstruction, data analysis, as well as cognitive and historical and analytical methods. The scientific novelty of the publication is determined by the problem statement and the identification of individual stages of the destruction of the self-awareness and ethnic identity of Ukrainians in recruiting stations. Conclusions. It was with Moscow's captivity that service in the army was associated. That is why anxiety, fear, and tension prevailed in society before and during recruitment. They multiplied even more when young people found themselves in the presence of recruiters, where a sense of doom was formed during the medical examination, which was shameful and humiliating for Ukrainians. Recruits who were still in this psychological state in the recruiting office were forced by their commanders to abandon everything that connected them to their previous life and made them Ukrainians, and instead to accept new values that the empire needed.