The XXIV Congress of the CPSU emphasized the importance of solving the problem of " organically combining the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system, and developing more widely the forms of combining science and production inherent in socialism."¹ In this regard, it is of great importance to study the socio-economic consequences of scientific and technological progress under socialism. This problem has already been reflected in Soviet historiography ^.2 Serious attention is paid to it in I. I. Bodyul's monograph " Socio-economic relations in the countryside at the stage of developed socialism "(Moscow, 1974). This article is devoted to elucidating some of the economic and social consequences of scientific and technological progress in agriculture of the Moldavian SSR in 1959-1970.

One of the directions of scientific and technological progress in the Moldovan agriculture in these years was mechanization - rapid and comprehensive equipping of its machines and mechanisms, improving the quality of their use. The main agricultural production funds of the collective and state farms of the republic continuously increased during this period. During the eighth five-year plan alone, they grew almost twofold and in 1970 reached the amount of 1,457. 4 million rubles ^.3 By this time, there were 35.4 thousand tractors, 3.4 thousand grain harvesters, 2.6 thousand corn harvesters, 2.2 thousand silage harvesters and 1.2 thousand beet harvesters in the republic's agriculture, 20.1 thousand trucks, and many other agricultural equipment ^.4 On average, there were 106 tractors per collective farm or state farm in 1970, compared to ²⁹ in 1959.5 At the same time, the equipment supplied to the collective and state farms of the republic has changed significantly over the years, now they receive powerful high-speed machines that provide higher labor productivity. Rapid quantitative and qualitative changes in the fleet of agricultural machines have created objective conditions for their better use.

"The same means of labor, that is, the same basic capital-

¹ "XXIV Congress of the CPSU". Stenographic report, vol. I. M. 1971, p. 82.

² A. A. Zvorykin. Scientific and Technical revolution and its social consequences, Moscow, 1967; V. G. Semibratov. Social problems of the modern scientific and technical revolution in the socialist society, L. 1969; "Scientific and Technical Revolution and Social progress", Moscow, 1969; L. " N. Malkov. Social problems of the modern scientific and technological revolution. Novokuznetsk. 1970; I. V. Makievsky. The modern scientific and technological revolution and its social consequences. Minsk. 1970; "Scientific and technological progress and social changes in rural areas". Minsk. 1972; "Scientific and technical revolution and social progress", Moscow, 1972, et al.

³ "National economy of the MSSR". Chisinau. 1971, p. 89.

⁴ "Agriculture of the USSR", Moscow, 1971, pp. 381-391.

⁵ Calculated by: "National economy of the MSSR". Chisinau, 1960, pp. 150-152, 157; "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, pp. 106, 109, 111. Tractors are counted everywhere in the 15-strong calculation.

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As Karl Marx wrote, tal can be used more efficiently both by extending the time of its annual use and by increasing the intensity of its use, and this does not require an additional expenditure of money on fixed capital"⁶ . It follows that there are two ways to increase the efficiency of using machines, including agricultural ones: extensive (increasing the number of days and shifts of machine operation during a certain period of time) and intensive (the most productive use of working hours, full utilization of engine power). Moldova during the period under review was characterized by an extensive way of operating motor vehicles. The average annual output per tractor in the collective farms of the republic has increased by 18-20% over these years, the seasonal output per combine harvester - by 20-25%⁷ . In 1970, in the Moldavian SSR, the output per tractor was 532 hectares of soft arable land on collective farms and 441 hectares on state farms, which was 23-28% higher than the national average ^.8 As a result of the rapid provision of various equipment to the republic's collective-farm and state-farm production and the improvement of its use, it became possible to fully mechanize plowing, sowing of grain and sugar beet, harvesting and cleaning of ear crops, to come close to completing the mechanization of corn, sunflower, and sugar beet production, and to increase the level of mechanization in animal husbandry.

Electrification is the basis of scientific and technological progress in the national economy as a whole and in agriculture in particular, the most important condition for creating the material and technical base of communism. Noting the crucial role of electric power in the development of the productive forces of society, V. I. Lenin wrote as early as 1901: "We will not expatiate on what a gigantic victory of large-scale production the introduction of electrical engineering into agriculture will mean (in part already means) - this circumstance is too obvious to insist on." ⁹ In Moldova, the electrification of collective farms and state farms was initially carried out on the basis of their own power plants, as well as small inter-collective diesel and hydroelectric power plants. Of the 497 collective farms that used electricity in 1959 (82% of the total number of collective farms), 348 received it only from their own power plants. ¹⁰ Electricity at that time was mainly used for household needs. Extensive electrification of agricultural production processes in the Moldavian SSR became possible only after the creation of a unified southern power system of the country and the connection of all collective and state farms of the republic to it. In 1970 alone, Moldovan agriculture received 933 million kW. - hour of electricity, which is more than 7 times the amount of electricity received by agriculture in 1960. In total, collective and state farms of the republic consumed 637.7 million kW in 1970. - hours, of which 398.6 million kW is used for production purposes. - hour, i.e. about 60%¹¹ .

The objective property inherent in the earth to steadily increase its productivity (fertility) does not have the character of an automatic process. To realize this property, it is necessary to implement a set of purposeful measures. K. Marx wrote: "Land-capital is fixed capital, but fixed capital also wears out-

⁶ K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., Vol. 24, p. 399.

⁷ Calculated from the annual reports of collective farms for 1959-1970, stored in copies at the Research Institute of Economics and Organization of Agricultural Production of the Ministry of Agriculture of the MSSR.

⁸ Calculated from: "Agriculture of the USSR", p. 394.

⁹ V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 5, p. 139.

¹⁰ "National economy of the MSSR". Chisinau, 1961, p. 151.

¹¹ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, p. 107; "Agriculture of the USSR", p. 405, 411.

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as well as working capital. Improvements applied to the earth require to be reproduced and maintained; they serve only for a certain time, and in this respect are like all other improvements used to transform matter into a means of production. " ¹² One of the most powerful means of maintaining and ensuring the expanded reproduction of land fertility, and therefore ensuring a steady increase in crop yields, is the chemicalization of agriculture - the use of optimal doses of mineral fertilizers and other chemical agents per hectare of arable land, taking into account its physico-chemical, biological and other natural properties.

In the agriculture of the Moldavian SSR, the achievements of chemical science and the chemical industry were increasingly applied in the period under review. If in 1959 the republic received 86 thousand tons of mineral fertilizers (in terms of conventional units), then in 1970 it was already 546 thousand tons, that is, 6.3 times more. Only during the eighth five-year plan, the collective and state farms of the Moldavian SSR received 1,924 thousand tons of mineral fertilizers, including 825 thousand tons of nitrogen, 912 thousand tons of phosphate and 187 thousand tons of potash. In terms of the conditional content of nutrients, 25.2 kg of nitrogen, 49.8 kg of phosphate and 10.4 kg of potash fertilizers per hectare of arable land in 1970, compared to 2.6, 4.7 and 1.2 kg, respectively, in 196013 . The use of chemical plant protection products has expanded rapidly. In the fight against various pests and diseases of agricultural crops, with weeds, chemical agents were increasingly used. The number of herbicide-treated crops increased more than 4-fold during the eighth five-year plan alone. In many farms of the republic there are specialized teams and units (with a permanent staff of workers) for plant protection, performing all activities under the guidance of specialists. This made it possible to use machinery and chemicals more efficiently.

An important factor in improving the use of land and raising the productive forces of agriculture is, as you know, hydro-reclamation, improving the soil by changing its water regime. At the July 1970 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L. I. Brezhnev emphasized that "the future of our agriculture lies in the broad development of land reclamation." ¹⁴ For the Moldavian SSR, where precipitation falls unevenly and droughts periodically recur, the problem of land reclamation is one of the most important in the complex of national economic problems. However, despite the obvious economic feasibility of irrigated agriculture on the territory of the republic, for a long time it developed poorly. Only after the May (1966) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which developed a broad program of land reclamation works, the situation changed significantly. Only in 4 years (from 1967 to 1970) 33.7 thousand hectares of irrigated land were put into circulation, and by the end of 1970 the republic already had 114.9 thousand hectares of irrigation-prepared areas, that is, 3.5 times more than in 196015 . A characteristic feature of hydro-reclamation works in these years was their more advanced technical organization. Instead of irrigation systems with a network of open channels, closed irrigation structures with a software device were created. This significantly improved the quality of irrigation, reduced the risk of salinization of the soil and brought great economic benefits.

¹² K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch. Vol. 4, pp. 176-177.

¹³ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, p. 100.

¹⁴ L. I. Brezhnev. Next tasks of the party in the field of agriculture, Moscow 1970, p. 34. .

¹⁵ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR" 1971, p. 100; "Agriculture of the USSR", Moscow 1961, p. 240.

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Thus, the main directions of scientific and technological progress in the agricultural production of the Moldavian SSR for 1959-1970 years were rapidly and comprehensively developed. Taken together, they caused a number of economic and social changes in the republic's agriculture and, first of all, strengthened the process of its specialization and concentration. By the end of the period under review, the republic had already developed the main areas of agricultural industry specialization: northern, central, southern and south-eastern. With 37.6% of agricultural land and 41% of arable land, collective and state farms in the northern zone produced 93.2% of sugar beet, 47.3% of tobacco, 44% of milk, and 42.2% of fruit in 1970. Farms of the central zone (26% of agricultural land and 22% of arable land) - 37.2% of grapes, 36.7% of tobacco, 24.6% of milk and 23.3% of fruits. Collective and state farms of the southern zone (26% of agricultural land and 25.8% of arable land), specializing in the production of grapes and sunflower - 40.1% of grapes and 30.3% of sunflower. Farms of the south-eastern zone (10.4% of agricultural land and 11.2% of arable land) - 33.4% of vegetables and 19.9% of fruits ¹⁶ . A characteristic feature of this process was its continuous deepening, covering ever smaller production and economic units. By 1970, in 7.4% of the republic's collective farms, more than 50% of the output was produced from one crop, and 42.8% of the collective farms specialized in two or three branches of the economy ^.17

The process of concentration of agricultural production in the republic in 1959-1970 intensified. The most effective form of this process in the context of Moldova, with its high population density (106 people per 1 sq. km)¹⁸ and a large difference in land located within the same farm, was cooperation on an inter-collective basis. Various nationwide associations were created for the production of some product, for example, meat ("Mezhkolkhozotkorm"), or for the purpose of carrying out any work ("Mezhkolkhozstroy"), which made it possible to specialize on the scale of the industry, expand its material and technical base, make more effective use of the achievements of science and technology, that is, opened up more opportunities for the development of new technologies. broad prospects for rational organization of production, for increasing labor productivity. During these years, the development and improvement of agricultural production in the Moldavian SSR also followed the integration of collective farm and state production through the creation of agricultural and industrial associations. The most widespread associations in the republic were state farms-factories (in 1970 there were 156 of them), because, as practice shows¹⁹, they have great advantages in comparison with those enterprises where the production of raw materials and its industrial processing are carried out separately. Such an association, eliminating the disunity and the well-known contradictory interests of these parts of the national economy, creates better conditions for maneuvering material and financial resources. Noting the high efficiency of Moldovan state farms and wineries, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. N. Kosygin stressed that the initiative and experience of the Moldavian SSR in this regard deserve full attention ²⁰ .

¹⁶ Calculated from: "Development and placement of productive forces of the Moldavian SSR", Moscow, 1972, p. 95.

¹⁷ I. I. Bodyul. On some issues of technical progress in agriculture in Moldova. "Agriculture of the USSR at the present stage", Moscow, 1972, p. 149.

¹⁸ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, pp. 5, 7.

¹⁹ See M. Bazin. Union of Agriculture and Industry. Chisinau. 1969, pp. 111-114.

²⁰ A. N. Kosygin. Speech at the solemn meeting in Chisinau dedicated to the awarding of the Order of Lenin to the city. "Soviet Moldavia", 1. X. 1967.

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The wide penetration of science ²¹ and technology in the agricultural production of the republic and, in this regard, its further specialization and concentration led to significant changes in technology. The time frame and quality of many field operations have been reduced, especially in the case of grain cultivation ^.22 The production of grapes, one of the main agricultural products of the republic, was being adjusted in a new way: instead of small, scattered plantations of hybrid varieties (on wooden stakes), collective farms and state farms began to create large arrays of high-quality European varieties (on trellises). The nursery-growing base of viticulture has significantly expanded and largely improved. All this shows that serious steps have been taken in the republic to transfer grape production to an industrial basis. If in 1965 the area of grape plantations increased by only 6.8% compared to 1960, then the yield per hectare increased by 23%, and the gross grape harvest almost doubled ^.23 Significant changes occurred during this period in the production of fruit. Instead of orchards with strong rootstocks, which begin to bear fruit on the 8th-12th year and, as a rule, have a certain periodicity, palmette gardens are created with weak and medium-sized vegetative rootstocks, which bear fruit annually from the 3rd to 4th year. In these gardens, it is much easier to apply the full range of agrotechnical measures, control pests and plant diseases, harvest and load fruits, etc., as a result of which the cost of production is reduced several times ²⁴.

Gradual changes over the period under review also occurred in the production technology of such labor-intensive agricultural sectors as vegetable and tobacco production. When cultivating these crops, new varieties are widely used, allowing for machine planting and mechanized harvesting. At the same time, the organization of production is being improved: the transition from individual piecework to a more progressive form - team work, with a simplified division of labor according to technological operations.

The rapid and comprehensive scientific and technological progress in the republic's agricultural production, its further specialization and concentration, and the improvement of technology led to certain changes in the use of the Moldovan rural labor force, and contributed to a more rational and efficient distribution of it both over time and in various industries. Although by the end of the period under review, as noted at the 2nd session of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR , Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic P. A. Pascar25, ^the loss of working hours and labor turnover in agriculture (due to the still high share of manual labor) were still large, the trend towards their reduction became especially obvious after the decisions March (1965) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee and the XXIII Party Congress. Average working year duration for able-bodied collective farmers

²¹ Research institutes of soil science, agronomy and land reclamation, irrigated agriculture and vegetable growing, horticulture, viticulture and winemaking, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, economics and organization of agricultural production, breeding, seed production and agricultural technology of field crops, as well as several experimental stations operate in the republic. The total number of researchers conducting research in the field of agriculture exceeds 1,500 people.

²² For example, the terms of sowing and harvesting of spikelets in the collective farms of the MSSR in 1959-1970 decreased by an average of 40-45% (calculated from the annual reports of collective farms).

²³ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, p. 97.

²⁴ I. I. Bodyul. Economic and socio-political problems of rapprochement between cities and villages. Chisinau. 1972, pp. 73-74.

²⁵ P. A. Paskar. On the State Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the Moldavian SSR for 1971-1975 and on the State Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the Moldavian SSR for 1972. "Soviet Moldavia". 8.XII.1971.

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it grew from 153 days in 1965 to 170 in 1970. The labor resource utilization rate of collective farms in the public sector increased from 62.4% to 64.4% ^during this period26 . The number of people employed in collective farm social production during the most stressful period of agricultural work (March, July, August, September) and the least stressful period (January, February, November, December) decreased by 20-25% in 1959-1970.²⁷

The construction of food and light industry enterprises in rural areas, the creation of various subsidiary enterprises and crafts for processing agricultural and livestock products, which was especially actively developing after the adoption of a special resolution "On the further development of subsidiary enterprises and crafts in Moldova" by the Council of Ministers of the Republic on October 30, 1967, contributed to a significant expansion of the use of labor resources of collective and state farms in Moldova during the off-season period. agriculture"²⁸, as well as the expansion of areas occupied for intensive industrial crops and perennial plantings. The area of the former has increased over the years by 16%, the latter-by 20%²⁹ .

The positive changes that took place during the period under review in the material and technical base of agricultural production, in its structure and organization, led to noticeable positive changes in the productivity of agricultural labor. Per average annual employee compared to 1960 it increased by 148% in 1970, and by 153% per person-day. Particularly high labor productivity was observed in animal husbandry - 1.9 times more products were produced per person-day than in 1960 (1.3 times more in agriculture) ^.30

The rapid development of the productive forces and the continuous improvement of socialist production relations ensure high social mobility and strengthen the process of horizontal and vertical movement of members of Soviet society. One of the most important aspects of this natural process is the continuous redistribution of the population between the city and the countryside. During the period between the last two All-Union population censuses, the redistribution was mainly along the lines of reducing the number of rural and increasing the number of urban residents. The Moldavian SSR was no exception in this respect. On the one hand, the rapid scientific and technological progress in agricultural production and, in this connection, the further specialization and concentration of agricultural production, the ever-improving use of rural labor resources, and the increasing productivity of collective and state farm workers led to the continuous release of a large number of able-bodied people from agriculture in the republic. On the other hand, the development of the republic's industry, the placement of light and food industry enterprises closer to raw material bases, and in this regard, the growth of the number of cities and urban-type settlements, the development of transport, the expansion of construction and maintenance required an increasing number of free labor. It is these two circumstances that have led to a high rate (even higher than in the whole Union) of redistribution of the rural and urban population of Moldova. If the share of the country's urban population increased, and the rural population decreased from 1959 to 1970 by 8%, then in the Moldavian SSR-by 10%. However, the quantitative relationship between these-

²⁶ "Development and deployment of the productive forces of the MSSR", p. 43.

²⁷ Calculated from the annual reports of collective farms for 1959-1970.

²⁸"Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta MSSR". Chisinau. 1967, No. 11, p. 203.

²⁹ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR". 1961, p. 100-101; 1971, p. 97,

³⁰ "Agriculture of the USSR", 1971, pp. 424-425.

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The majority of the population of the republic remained in favor of rural residents for the time being. While in the whole country this ratio was 56% and 44% in 1970 (against 48% and 52% in 1959), in Moldova it was 32% and 68%, respectively (against 22% and 78%)^.31

The absolute and relative decline in the rural population, which is characteristic of the country as a whole (the number of rural residents in the country has decreased by more than 3 million people over the years), was not observed in Moldova. In the republic, there was only a relative decline in the rural population - its share decreased from 78 to 68%, while the total number of rural residents during this time not only did not decrease, but even slightly increased - from 2,242 to 2,438 thousand people, that is, by almost 8.8%. This feature was explained by the high growth of its population: if in the whole country for 1959-1970. it was 15%, then in the Moldavian SSR-23%³² . Consequently, the period under review, marked by rapid scientific and technological progress in agricultural production and a noticeable increase in industrial production, was not for Moldova, as for the whole country, a period of absolute decline in the rural population. However, due to a number of specific features of the republic (the highest population density, a large proportion of the rural population at the beginning of this period, and its significant growth), the tendency of intensifying the process of redistribution of rural and urban population, which is characteristic of all republics, has fully manifested itself.

Significant changes occurred during the period under review in the level of education of the rural population of the republic. In total, the number of persons with higher, incomplete higher and secondary (full and incomplete) education in the MSSR increased by 179%, 89% and 98%, respectively, in 1970 compared to 1959 ³³ . Among rural residents of the Moldavian SSR in 1970, 19902 people had higher education, 7980 people had incomplete higher education, and more than 500 thousand people had secondary education (full and incomplete), that is, 149%, ²²% and 66% more than in 195934 . For every 1,000 rural residents aged 10 years and older in 1970, there were 2 times more people with higher education and 1.5 times more with incomplete higher and secondary (full and incomplete) education. The growth in the number of people with higher and incomplete higher and secondary (full and incomplete) education over these years in relation to 1 thousand people employed in the national economy looks even more impressive - the number of people with higher education has increased 3 times, the rest - twice ³⁵ . Thus, faster growth rates are observed in relation to specialists with higher education. With a total rural population growth of 8.8%, this category increased by 17.9%. The most rapid increase occurred in the ranks of the agricultural intelligentsia - agricultural specialists with higher, incomplete higher and secondary specialized education. Only during the years of the eighth five-year plan, their number increased by 30.4%, while the number of education workers - by 18.5%, and cultural workers-by 22.4%³⁶ .

This phenomenon is quite natural. It is dictated by the objective needs of scientific and technological progress in the agricultural sector.

³¹ "Results of the 1970 All-Union Population Census", vol. 1, Moscow, 1972, pp. 8-9.

³² Calculated from: "Results of the 1970 All-Union Population Census", vol. 1, pp. 1-9.

³³ Calculated from: "Results of the All-Union Population Census of 1959. Moldavian SSR". M. 1962, pp. 20-21; "Results of the All-Union Population Census of 1970", vol. 3. M. 1972, pp. 18-19.

³⁴ Calculated from the same compilations, p. 24-25 and 66-69, respectively.

³⁵ Ibid., pp. 25-40 and 66-69, 558.

³⁶ K. A. Zavtur. On some changes in the social structure of rural intelligentsia during the period of communist construction. "Problems of changing the social structure of Soviet society". Chisinau, 1971, pp. 31-32.

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production in a developed socialist society. In a speech to the delegates of the Third All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L. I. Brezhnev said:: "Scientific and technological progress in agriculture cannot be reduced only to an increase in the supply of new machinery, chemical fertilizers and other means of production. An integral and active part of this process is the ability to use the land and fertilizers, every car and every ruble invested in production efficiently and with the greatest efficiency. " ³⁷ Scientific organization of labor, timely and correct introduction of scientific and technological achievements, best practices, improvement of agricultural work technology, and, consequently, continuous increase in the productivity of collective-farm and state-farm labor largely depend on the number and quality of agricultural specialists, their number and readiness. That is why increasing their ranks and improving their skills is a constant concern of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government. The number of specialists with higher and secondary specialized education engaged in agricultural production in the Moldavian SSR increased by 240% from 1959 to 1970. The growth rate of agricultural specialists with higher education was particularly high - by 368% (against 190% for specialists with secondary special education) ^.38

The process of transformation of agricultural labor into a type of industrial labor significantly affects the composition and qualifications of machine operators. From 1959 to 1970, their number in the republic more than doubled, and the number of machine operators trained in the vocational education system is growing every year. In 1970, the MSSR trained almost 3 times as many tractor drivers, combine harvesters, drivers and other machine operators as in 195939 . In addition, not only is the number of vocational schools growing (due to the expansion of the network of vocational schools), but the quality of training is also improving (due to the improvement of the educational process). This is evidenced by the amount of work that machine operators performed by the end of the period under review: accounting for only 9% of the total number of people employed in agricultural production in the republic, they performed almost 70% of work in agriculture and animal husbandry. ⁴⁰ Consequently, machine operators have already become the leading force in agricultural production, representing the future of our collective and state farms.

Machine operators play a significant role not only in the economy of the modern Moldovan village, but also in its social development. On the one hand, as representatives of the industrial professions, they are gradually approaching the working class by the nature of their work. On the other hand, many of them, having secondary specialized education, are working in rural areas as workers who increasingly combine physical and mental labor in their production activities. Machine operators form the vanguard of rural workers, paving the way for the gradual blurring of distinctions between the working class and the collective-farm peasantry, between workers of intellectual and physical labor.

An important result of scientific and technological progress in rural areas is a constant increase in the material well-being of rural residents

³⁷ L. I. Brezhnev. Voprosy agrarnoi politiki CPSU i razvitie tselinnykh zemlyakh Kazakhstana [Issues of agricultural policy of the CPSU and development of virgin lands in Kazakhstan].

³⁸ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1961, p. 226-228; "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, p. 168.

³⁹ Calculated from: "Results of the All-Union Population Census of 1959. Moldavian SSR", p. 59; "Agriculture of the USSR". 1971, p. 464; "National Economy of the MSSR". 1961, p. 231; "National Economy of the MSSR". 1971, p. 173.

⁴⁰ K. F. Ilyashenko. Constant increase in the role of Soviets in Communist construction in the light of the decisions of the XXIV Congress of the CPSU "Soviet Moldavia", 15. VII. 1971.

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Moldova. The average monthly salary of agricultural workers increased by 24% during the eighth five-year plan alone, and by more than 1.5 times in comparison with 1960. Guaranteed cash payments on collective farms, the establishment of pensions for collective farmers, an increase in tariff rates for various types of work, and other measures taken by the Communist Party and the Soviet Government to improve the material level of the rural population contributed to an increase in rural demand for consumer goods. Retail trade turnover per capita in the republic increased by 123% in the period from 1960 to 1970 ⁴¹ . The appearance of Moldovan villages changed significantly in 1959-1970. The economically strengthened collective and state farms of the republic launched extensive construction of residential buildings, cultural, household and administrative buildings, and industrial buildings. Residential buildings with a total usable area of 5444 thousand square meters were built in the villages of Moldova. During the years of the eighth five-year plan, 482 schools, preschool institutions for 36.1 thousand places, clubs and cultural centers for 99.1 thousand places, hospitals for 2304 beds, and ⁴² polyclinics were put into operation in rural areas of the republic . Moldovan villages are fully electrified, most of them have administrative, commercial and cultural centers, paved roads connecting them with the main production facilities.

The consequences of scientific and technological progress in agriculture of the Moldavian SSR are significant and diverse. In their totality (from strengthening the processes of specialization and concentration of agricultural production, improving its technology, using rural labor resources and increasing agricultural productivity, to strengthening the processes of social mobility of the rural population, changing its professional and qualification structure, improving its general education and cultural and technical level, improving working and living conditions), they indicate positive trends in the development of rural changes in socialist agriculture. The whole system of socialist social relations in rural areas is being improved. The social division of labor is deepening, the territorial distribution of agriculture is improving, and intra-industry and intra-farm specialization is developing. There is a further socialization of agricultural production, the strengthening of production ties between collective farms, between collective-farm cooperative and state-owned enterprises.

The progress of science and technology leads to a rational change in the labor force, in its use, in its professional and qualification composition, in general education and cultural and technical level. "Self-employment, professional and general culture, knowledge of agricultural science and technology, the ability to take as much as possible from the land. This is the secret of the high yields that your republic is famous for, " said Leonid Brezhnev in his speech at the solemn meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova and the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the formation of the MSSR and the creation of the Communist Party of Moldova. ⁴³ In the republic, there are serious changes in the nature and content of agricultural labor, it is increasingly approaching industrial labor.

⁴¹ Calculated from: "National Economy of the MSSR", 1971, pp. 166, 185.

⁴² Calculated from: "Agriculture of the USSR", 1971, pp. 666-669.

⁴³ "Pravda", 12. X. 1974.

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