Life support of rural population: consequences of the old reforms and reference points of the new ones

Changes in key segments of the life support system of rural population during reforming agricultural and social sectors and the reasons which caused them have been analyzed. It is shown that in general there was a deterioration of rural infrastructure and access of population to public goods. The declared quality improvement of education and health services in terms of service concentration and closure of corresponding establishments were not achieved. At the same time, in suburban and recreational zones, the process of the urbanization of rural environment accelerated. Here and generally in Ukraine, the volume of rural house construction increased as well as the level of engineering equipment of housing stock. The author revealed the opportunities to improve living conditions in rural areas on the basis of higher citizens' initiative, community cohesion and development of state-public partnership. This will be contributed by measures to decentralize power and economy and reform the sphere of life support based on de-monopolization and de-concentration of public services. The author justifies the guidelines to solve the problems concerning life support of rural population by improving the state agrarian policy and directing it to achieve the objectives of rural development such as increasing incomes of peasants of all forms of participation in agricultural production and attracting businesses to the development of rural communities. It is necessary to clearly position the interest of agricultural sector in the preservation and development of rural settlement network.