The political debate about the land question in the Estonian area of the Baltic provinces, 1905–1914

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Revolution of 1905 launched a political debate about the land question in the Baltic provinces. At the end of 1905, the first legal political parties were formed in the Estonian area. This article examines the views of different Estonian and Baltic German political parties and ideological factions on the land question from 1905 to 1914. The article argues that the debate about the land question was part of a wider discussion about the efficiency of large-scale and small-scale agriculture. The article concludes that the arguments represented in the debate were influenced by several property theories from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.