220 



ever good or bad the data are, the fact of the matter is that 

 Goskomstat is now collecting data on the number of fines per ob- 

 last. 



So one can say on the one hand, in those areas where there are 

 a high number of fines, this shows that the struggle is going on. 

 I mean, you can interpret it both ways. On the one hand, you can 

 say, yes, farm managers are trying to obstruct land reform. On the 

 other hand, you can say that someone, whether it be the center, or 

 the local officials, or someone, is serious about fining those people 

 who are standing in the way. 



Once again, however good or bad the data are, the fact of the 

 matter is that the highest number of fines as of January — I was 

 in Moscow in January 1993 and went to various land reform com- 

 mittees and got data, and the highest number of fines are occurring 

 precisely in those black earth regions. So, again, whether you want 

 to put the negative interpretation on it or a positive interpretation, 

 it is clear that since December 1991 the black earth is the leader 

 in facilitating land reform. 



Mr. Penny. We heard yesterday that evidently in Moldavia 

 there's a collective farm that has in essence transformed into an 

 American-style cooperative in which each peasant has been given 

 ownership over a particular parcel, they share equipment on a co- 

 operative basis, they receive financing on kind of a portions basis, 

 and so, in that sense, what had been sort of the local bureaucratic 

 structure has become a co-op that provides credit, a co-op that pro- 

 vides equipment, other input needs, and also helps with the mar- 

 keting. I think the anecdotal evidence is that productivity had im- 

 proved on that collective farm as a consequence. 



Is that happening anywhere else, and is that perhaps a more re- 

 alistic reform than private ownership, given the constitutional limi- 

 tation and the difficult prospects of changing political d5mamics 

 and the constitution in the near term? 



Mr. Van Atta. The model you're talking about, sir, is one that 

 is quite old. It was originally worked out in the 1960's by a man 

 named Ivan Khudenko, who ultimately was jailed for misappro- 

 priating funds and died in jail, becoming a martjT, in the 1970's. 



Mr. Penny. What's happening there now? 



Mr. Van Atta. The idea was picked up by the head of the Rus- 

 sian Agricultural Academy, Dr. Serova's boss — I believe you spoke 

 to Dr. Serova on the first day of the hearings — the former head of 

 the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Alexander 

 Nikonov. He pushed that on Gorbachev, Gorbachev bought it, and 

 there are now — I think the last number I saw for Russia, and I 

 don't know the numbers for the rest of the newly independent 

 states — was about 500 of these things set up. There is some ques- 

 tion whether or not that is signific£int reform, because, given the 

 pressure to reorganize all collective farms, the Moscow authorities 

 made the collective and state farms denationalize the land last 

 year. A great many of those large farms which set up "associations 

 of peasant farms" probably did not create true individual farms. 

 Such reorganization is, in fact, what the Russians would call mere- 

 ly a change of sign boards. 



The kolkhoz chairman I referred to whom I interviewed recently, 

 whose cash crop is flax — he sells the linseed oil to the military, and 



