The transformation of the source base of research on the history of socio-economic processes of the Soviet period

The article raises the question of the need to involve in the scientific use of new sources of Soviet history study. The authors refer to their experience of studying sources on the economic history of the Soviet countryside. They emphasize the importance of involving population budgets, demographic statistics, land balances, market trade statistics and other data in the study. The work on the agrarian system of Russia demanded the use and interpretation of a new set of sources: balance sheet of consolidated annual agricultural reports, materials on the cost structure of agricultural production, national accounts of the USSR and others. The article shows the main scientific findings made on the basis of the involvement of sources on the socio-economic history of the village. In particular, the authors write about the importance of the analysis of the factors of production relations (land, labor and capital), which led them to a conclusion that the factor of capital prevailed in production in the 1960s. Further research on the agrarian system was connected with the study of the social restructuring of the village in the era of capitalization and with involvement of sources such as materials of the USSR censuses, reports and analytical data of authorities and social development management, letters, periodical press materials, literature, folklore and others. Their comprehensive use made it possible to obtain new findings that showed defarm-ing of the 1930s-1980s as the formation of new agricultural classes: proto-bourgeoisie, managers, intellectuals, labor aristocracy, proletariat. In terms of introducing new sources, the authors draw attention to the works carried out in the 1970s-1980s at the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The works are publications of statistical tables describing the various aspects of the socio-economic development of Russia (USSR) from 1913 to 1980. The materials present data on the size of the national income, the value of productive assets, the number of employed in the national economy, their level of education, socially necessary expenditure on labor and others. The authors theorize on which materials of economic studies may be useful in historical research and on what the procedure of working with this source is.

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