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| Reference Material |
| Russia seeks to dismantle collective farms By Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times June 21, 2002, Today KURSK, Russia � A decade after it began its spasmodic transition to capitalism, the Russian government is moving to dismantle one of the lasting legacies of the Stalinist era: the collectivization of the nation�s farmlands. Urged by President Vladimir Putin, the lower house of Parliament, the Duma, passed a preliminary bill last month intended to create a legal system to buy and sell Russia�s vast agricultural lands for the first time since the country�s farms were nationalized in 1917���. The Communist and Agrarian parties, regional leaders and others opposed to the privatization of the motherland itself are threatening to block Putin�s efforts as they have similar ones since the collapse of the Soviet Union���.. The prospect of change has terrified farmers and others who cling to the dream of the kokholzy, or collective farms, that still operate more than 90% of the nation�s farms. Above all, they fear a repeat of the corrupted privatization of utilities and other state enterprises in the 1990s when ordinary Russians received stocks in the state businesses but most of the companies ended up in the hands of the richest oligarchs. |