ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a description of the decollectivization program with particular reference to the village of Zamfirovo. The work of the land commission can be seen as fairly straightforward compared to other elements in the process of decollectivization. The use of force to insure decollectivization gained national attention when the villagers of Zalapitsa in south central Bulgaria occupied their town hall and refused to let the liquidating committee take over the farm. The rhetoric of decollectivization as the restitution of property rights allowing villagers to do as they pleased with their land probably struck villagers as analogous to the communist concept of "voluntary collectivization." Communal property was also targeted by the decollectivization program as a potential solution to the expected shortfall of land for restitution. Some of the parallels drawn go beyond those intended by villagers claiming decollectivization was "an old song in a new voice.".
