ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes observations on agrarian reform and the prospects for individual farming from visits to more than fifty state, collective and individual farms during two fieldwork trips to Russia in 1990 and 1991. Under Rutskoi’s plan the state would sell land certificates to private citizens through the Russian Land Bank. The chapter discusses the observations against the background of our comparative experience with those issues in twenty-three other countries. There are at least some important differences, however, between the current reform aimed at establishing individual peasant farms and previous reform campaigns. They should help ensure that reform efforts for individual peasant farming will not be temporary or ineffective. Private marketing middlemen are crucial to the success of individual farming. The right of individual farmers to sell and mortgage land is crucial for the success of individual farming in Russia.
