Ruslana Potapenko
Ph.D in Historical Sciences, Lecturer of the
Department of History and Culture
of Ukraine and Special Historical Disciplines,
Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav
Е-mail: rusyapotapenko007@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000–0002–3521–9462
DOI: 10.17721/2522-4611.2026.53.8
Valentyna Molotkina
Doctor in Historical Sciences, professor of the
Department of History and Culture
of Ukraine and Special Historical Disciplines,
Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav
Е-mail: molotkina@ukr.net
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000–0001–6092–5927
DOI: 10.17721/2522-4611.2026.53.8
Liudmyla Khmelnytska
Ph.D in Historical Sciences, Lecturer of the
Department of History and Culture
of Ukraine and Special Historical Disciplines,
Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav
Е-mail: ludmylahm@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000–0003–2482–4322
DOI: 10.17721/2522-4611.2026.53.8
DAILY LIFE OF THE RURAL POPULATION OF UKRAINE 1985–1991: HOUSING AND SOCIAL PROBLEM
The article attempts to show the decisive role of social development in solving the housing problem in rural areas, ways of its implementation, shortcomings and miscalculations.
In March 1985, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, M. Gorbachev, a young, ambitious politician, was elected General Secretary. In his first speech, he stated the party's strategic goals, aimed at accelerating socio-economic development and improving all spheres of life in Soviet society. Subsequently, Gorbachev's plan was formalized into the general line of the state – «perestroika».
The attempt to revive the economy, to put it on an extensive path of development in the shortest possible time, created the prerequisites for the implementation of measures in the social sphere, in which the problems associated with housing, transport, water supply, increased production of everyday goods, and improved quality of household services, especially in rural areas, sharply worsened. In this context, the 1986 target program «Housing-2000» was important, which provided for providing each Soviet family with a separate apartment by 2000.
During 1986–1989, almost 5 million people in the Ukrainian SSR improved their living conditions, 2 million 593 thousand families and single people were registered in the housing register. As of 1989, 84% of the population in cities and 95% in villages had individual housing. Living conditions largely depended on the municipal improvement of housing. In the village, this was measured by providing the population with gas supply, which was at the level of 8.4%, and in the city – gasification, water supply, the presence of sewage, which was 54.8%. To a large extent, the increase in housing construction is due to the Comprehensive Program for the Reconstruction of the Republic's Villages, approved in 1987 by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which provided for an increase in the pace and expansion of the scale of housing construction and the development of the entire social sphere in the countryside.
The social well-being of the village directly influenced the increase in the efficiency of agricultural production and the agrarian sector. The government took a number of measures to overcome the food crisis. Calculations on weak farms showed that with the development of their social sphere to a satisfactory level of workers, increasing technical equipment, the food crisis can be successfully resolved. Such an experiment was carried out in many collective farms and state farms of Ukraine.
Key words: village, rural population, perestroika, everyday life, social security, living conditions, housing, Ukrainian SSR.
Received 28.11.2025.
Revised 22.12.2025.
Accepted 6.01.2026.
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