Russia Votes to Allow Farmers to Own Land
The Parliament of the Russian republic today approved a law to move away from collective agriculture, allowing farmers to own their own land and sell it after 10 years.
The measure reverses a policy that has been in effect since Josef Stalin carried out a bloody and brutal collectivization of land between 1929 and 1932.
The national legislature has yet to approve the privatization of farmland, although the vote by the Parliament of the Russian Federation, by far the largest of the 15 Soviet republics, could push the Kremlin’s hand.
The three Baltic republics, which declared independence earlier this year, have also passed laws allowing private land ownership, although the process is bogged down in disputes over property rights.
Additionally, the newly elected non-Communist Parliament of Georgia is expected to pass a law soon to move away from collective agriculture.
The final vote in the Russian Parliament, known as the Russian Congress of Peoples Deputies, was 863 to 90 with 40 abstentions.
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