A system of social indicators for the integrated and systemic study of rural socioeconomic development was constructed. Specific features of the system were that it: (1) embraced nearly all aspects of life activity of the rural population, ranging from work in the public sector to leisure behaviour; (2) included social indicators which measured the life style of rural dwellers, their qualitative characteristics and some of their attitudes as well as the conventional statistics assessing the functions of economic institutions and the distribution of population among social groups; and (3) relied on a systemic conceptual framework of socioeconomic development of rural communities. This paper describes the main stages in the system's development. Some methodological principles of devising systems of social indicators for integrative study of socioeconomic development of rural communities are discussed. Emphasizing the need to use scholars engaged in different rural studies as judges for the selection of necessary indicators, two ways of constructing social indicators--empirical and theoretical--are presented. (NQ)