254 



food producers.^ In 1991 and through the first months of 1992, the Ycl'tsin regime 

 pursued a series of state interventions designed to enforce rural differentiation. What the 

 regime did not anticipate however, was the effect of market reforms on urban-rural 

 relations and the significant shift that turned economic temis against the agricultural sector. 



For example, during 1992, purchase prices for agricult\iral products rose an average of 

 10 times, but prices for basic industrial products used by state and collective farms 

 increased an average of 17-20 times.^ For example, a "MT3" tractor that had cost 6,000 

 rubles in 1990 was priced at 240,000 rubles at the beginning of 1992; a "Don" combine 

 rose from 47,000 rubles to 1 .6 million during the same period; and a plow for a tractor 

 increased from 675 rubles to 9,500.5 Onc should note these arc prices for the beginning of 

 1992, prior to inflation in the course of that year that has been estimated as high as 2,000 

 percent More recently, it was noted that a "Belarus" tractor had increased in price from 

 360,000 rubles to 1 .3 million during 1992.^ 



The consequences of price liberalization resulted in an extreme financial drain fix>m the 

 rural sector and forced the Yel'tsin administration to introduce compensation and further 

 $ubsidie.s to food producers. Despite these measures, as well as a doubling of procurement 

 prices for grains in August 1992, the indebtedness of the agro-industrial sector increased 

 from 69.3 billion rubles on January 1 , 1992, to over 733 billion rubles on November 1 , 

 1992."' By mid- 1992 the state began to pursue a more egalitarian policy toward all fanns. 



The sources of cgalitarianism under Yeltsin are twofold. First, we can see a carryover 

 from Soviet rural egalitarian policy. This continuation is seen by the way legal institutions 

 governing land reform arc defined. Second, the effects of market reform led to an 



^ For nn nnatysis of Yel'tsin's early rural social policy, sec Stephen K. Wegren. "TVo Steps Forwaid, One 



Step Back: the Poliiics of an Emerging New Rural Social Policy in Russia," govjet ai)d Posi-Soviet 



Review , vol. 19 nos. 1-3 (1992), pp. M9. 



'' Ekonomika i 7hi7n' no. 5 (February 1993). p. 4. 



5 V. Miloserdov. "Problcmy agramoy politiki," APK: ekonomika. uprvaleniye . no. 7 (July 1992), p. 15. 



^ Arimmenty I fnkty no. 6 (Febniary 1993). p. 2. 



^ Sel'skava zhizn'. December 11. 1992. p. 1. 



