EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE UKRAINIAN VILLAGE IN THE PERIOD OF THE MID-1950s – EARLY 1960s: SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES OF MODERNIZATION

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to conduct a holistic analysis of the evolution of the social infrastructure of the Ukrainian village in 1953 – 1964 and to identify deep contradictions between the state modernization plans of the thaw era and the real quality of life of the peasantry. The scientific novelty consists in the change in the paradigm of the study: the authors move away from a purely quantitative statistical description of infrastructure facilities in favour of analysing their qualitative functionality and accessibility. The article integrates the latest research of 2022 – 2024 to create a multifaceted vision of rural life. It has been proven that the systemic transformation of the village was half-hearted, and the foundation laid during this period had both progressive and destructive consequences for the further historical fate of the agrarian regions. The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity and historicism. A complex of general scientific and special historical methods has been applied. The historical-system method enabled us to consider the infrastructure as a holistic organism that combines technical (electrification), trade and socio-cultural components. The method of critical analysis of sources became the basis for the deconstruction of the ideological layers of the Soviet historiography, and micro historical and anthropological approaches made it possible to assess the impact of reforms on the everyday practices of a particular person.

Conclusions. The study confirms that the Khrushchev thaw provided a powerful impetus for the Ukrainian village to emerge from the infrastructural decline of the Stalin era. However, this process was inconsistent and half-hearted: the complete levelling of differences between the city and the village never occurred. It has been determined that although rural residents felt, for the first time, as full-fledged subjects of the system of consumer services, trade and healthcare, the quality of service often remained at a critically low level. This gives grounds to characterize the modernization of that time as extensive, since the quantitative expansion of the network of institutions (electricity networks, hospitals, and agricultural markets) significantly outpaced their qualitative content and actual accessibility for the broad masses of the population. The authors state that understanding the errors of the then “residual principle” of financing and excessive centralization is necessary for the development of effective strategies for the revival of modern Ukrainian villages under the conditions of decentralization.

Key words: social infrastructure, Ukrainian village, the thaw era, modernization, social policy, electrification.