Development of the Material and Technical Basis of Agrarian Sector during the Thaw in the Writings of the Native Historians of the Era of Independence

Abstract

The paper presents a historiographical overview of the process of development and improvement of the material and technical basis of agriculture in Ukraine during the period of Khrushchev Thaw. A number of aspects related to the nature of the reform of agriculture in general are analyzed. The complex and rather contradictory nature of the implementation of a large-scale campaign of MTS (machine tractor station) liquidation and the hasty and widespread sale of their machinery to the collective farms is shown. The influence of material and technical innovations in the agrarian sector of the economy on the organization of work in agriculture is shown. It is found out that those changes took place in parallel with a certain democratization of socio-political life in the country. The author claims that this caused quite significant changes in the Ukraine population social sphere of life in general and especially in the rural areas.

It is concluded that the analysis of modern historiography devoted to the material security of Ukrainian village of the Thaw time, makes it possible to assert that the pressing problem of material and technical security of the Ukrainian village of Khrushchev period was a striking imbalance in prices for agricultural and industrial products. Established merely administratively, they became a financial burden for the collective farms, which had to pay the debts for the machinery received from liquidated MTS. Farming machines  sold to them became an essential source of receipts for the state, which then were returning to collective farmers in the form of wages. However, the quality of the machinery itself did not allow to improve the efficiency of agricultural work significantly, and, consequently, to increase properly the agricultural output and reduce its cost.