Soviet Union New Masters of The Land

Even 60 years later, Soviet farmers have not forgiven Joseph Stalin for taking away their land. Now Mikhail Gorbachev is offering, more or less, to give it back. Under a new policy unveiled by the Soviet President last week at a plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee, private farmers will be able to lease land for 50 years and beyond and even pass their tenancy on to their children. It will, Gorbachev declared, make the Soviet farmer "the master on the land."

State land, that is. Ever heedful of reluctant conservatives like agriculture boss Yegor Ligachev, who believe the collectives could be resuscitated with an infusion of government funds, Gorbachev stopped short of true privatization. Even as he gave an approving nod to "individual property," Gorbachev announced that conversion to free farming would be on a "voluntary" basis. He also made clear that the leasing scheme would fall within the framework of the collective system.

The new system is supposed to tame the Soviet Union's problems of waste, inefficiency and food shortages. Citizens continue to queue daily for limited stocks of meat, butter and milk. Small wonder Gorbachev calls food "one of the most important problems we need to solve."

Still, some observers warn that the moderate reforms fall short of what is needed to overcome the agriculture crisis. A major obstacle to bolder reforms will be fear among farmers that the push toward privatization may be rolled back again. Such inherent caution cannot have eased when Ligachev announced at a press conference that a free-market agriculture system would be adopted only after there is "an abundance of food."