Thirty years of land transformation in Russia

Abstract

The transformation of the Soviet planned economic model into a modern Russian market economy would not have been possible without large-scale privatization of the means of production, a large share of which is agricultural land. In contrast to the privatization of industry, which was carried out and completed in a relatively short time by historical standards, formation of private ownership of land continues to this day, having exceeded thirty years. In accordance with the goal of the land reform initiated in the early 1990s, over 115 million hectares of agricultural land were to be transferred to private ownership of more than 12 million people. The main tool for the implementation of land reform became the so-called “Land shares”. Nevertheless, a number of issues have not yet been resolved; a certain tension remains in land relations and the formation of a civilized land market. The content of the article presents the author’s position on the assessment of the causes, content and consequences of land transformations in Russia and proposals on the formation of a set of measures for their successful completion.