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The rural population of Ukraine played an important role in all history of the country. Different ideologies and reforms during the time of the Soviet Union had deep consequences for Ukrainian village dwellers. Economic projects like collectivization were tried out on the shoulders of the rural population, who spent their life following the decisions of communist leaders. About 15 years ago, with the economic transformation process a new era for the rural population of Ukraine started. The transformation process from a communist system to market economy led again to deep consequences for villages. With this process of privatization also a new era of rural development should have started but this process brought hardly any improvement for villages. For this reason it is necessary to start a new way of policy for the improvement of the quality of life in rural Ukraine. This book is a contribution to show the utmost urgency of rural development in these areas.

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Julia Michlmayr-Gomenyuk, Dipl.Ing.: Study of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Graduate student Assistant and Ph. D. Student at the Vienna University of Technology.

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