L. STEFANCHUK, Candidate of Historical Sciences WHY THEIR STUDY AND ANALYSIS CAN BE USEFUL FOR RUSSIA New Zealand is a relatively young country, it appeared on the world map in the first half of the XIX century. It was created as a migrant colony of Great Britain and for a long time was actually its agricultural farm. Today it is a developed industrial and agricultural state with a population of 4 million people, 610 thousand of whom are descendants of indigenous Maori people. Having passed a seemingly short historical path, New Zealand can serve as an instructive example for other countries, in particular, for Russia. The fact is that in the 80s, or rather in 1984, it began to restructure its national economy. It was initiated by the structural crisis in the country's economy, which during the first half of the 20th century was known as the "welfare state" and ranked 3rd - 5th in the world in terms of per capita income. However, in the 50s, 60s, and especially 70s, the situation is changing: it drops to 19-23 places. New Zealand's long-term crisis was a natural result of the worsening of fundamental internal imbalances in the economy that had accumulated over many decades. In the mid-70s, they were overlaid with the disastrous consequences for the state of the global commodity and especially energy crises of that time. BEGINNING OF THE END "ERA OF PROSPERITY" Many of the negative processes that clearly manifested themselves in the second half of the 70s and early 80s were based on the long lag of the manufacturing industry, as well as the country's dependence on imports of raw materials, materials and components. For many years, New Zealand's main export was agricultural products, up to 30% of which went to the UK, which guarantees New Zealand a stable and capacious market. The entry of England into the EEC significantly reduced and complicated the marketing of traditional New Zealand export goods, in particular meat and dairy products and wool, the demand and pric ... Read more