The article establishes the reasons for the emergence of the phenomenon of agricultural machinery exhibitions in Ukrainian terrains, and also traces the evolution of this type of demonstration events during the second half 19th century. The specifics of its territorial distribution are shown in the context of the development of regional agricultural engineering, and the role of agricultural machinery exhibitions in this process is determined, which was the purpose of this study.

During the scientific work, problem-chronological, comparative-historical, retrospective methods, as well as the method of system analysis were used, the comprehensive application of which made it possible to obtain unbiased conclusions.

As a result of the analysis of the transformations of the purposes and methods of exposing agricultural machinery at relevant exhibitions from the middle to the end of the 19th century, carried out in projection on the identified accompanying dynamics of changes in the design principles of domestically produced agricultural machinery, it was determined that such exhibitions in this period became one of the forms of branch scientific support. The short-term influence of the exclusively demonstration form of the corresponding exhibition activity on changes in the designs of Ukrainian agricultural machinery showed the situational nature of its leading role in the organization of scientific-technical development of domestic agricultural machine-building, due to the insufficiently developed research in the field of farming mechanics in the region. As the latter became more active, the leading role of static-demonstration events in branch scientific support was leveled out, and they were replaced by dynamic-demonstration exhibitions-competitions, accompanied by testing of exhibits. However, this role of exhibitions-competitions in the development of domestic agricultural machine-building was inherent only in the Ukrainian lands within the borders of the Russian Empire, where the pace of industrialization and expansion of agricultural lands created conditions for the growth of both demand for agricultural machinery and its supply.

In the Ukrainian provinces of Austria-Hungary, industrialization processes were very slow, and the reserves for territorial expansion of agricultural activity were extremely limited, as a result of which objective prerequisites for the intensive development of regional agricultural engineering did not arise here during the period under study. Thus, the aim of the exhibitions-competitions held in Ukrainian regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire remained to promote the processes of popularizing modern machine agricultural technologies among local farmers and optimizing the fleet of agricultural machinery they use. With the further development of agricultural science in general and research in the field of farming mechanics in particular in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire, the role of exhibitions-competitions as a form of scientific support for regional agricultural machine-building began to be leveled out, although it remained such at the beginning of the 20th century.

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