Putin signs Russian homesteading act
On Monday Russia’s president Vladimir Putin signed a new law that is a variation of the American homesteading acts that helped settle the west in the 1800s.
Trutnev’s initial suggestion was to “create a mechanism for the free allocation of a 1 hectare (2.5 acres) plot of land to every resident of the Far East and to anyone who is willing to come and live in the region so that they could start a private business in farming, forestry, game hunting or some other enterprise.” He added that the agreement could be signed for five years, and then it should either enter full force if the new landlord follows the plan, or be declared void if the land is not used.
They might be doing it wrong in aerospace, but if this story is correct Putin’s government has got it right when it comes to land ownership.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
On Monday Russia’s president Vladimir Putin signed a new law that is a variation of the American homesteading acts that helped settle the west in the 1800s.
Trutnev’s initial suggestion was to “create a mechanism for the free allocation of a 1 hectare (2.5 acres) plot of land to every resident of the Far East and to anyone who is willing to come and live in the region so that they could start a private business in farming, forestry, game hunting or some other enterprise.” He added that the agreement could be signed for five years, and then it should either enter full force if the new landlord follows the plan, or be declared void if the land is not used.
They might be doing it wrong in aerospace, but if this story is correct Putin’s government has got it right when it comes to land ownership.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
This could be an option for those fired Vostochny managers!
Mitch S:
HAR.
Stalin just called it “exile to the wasteland.”
I was thinking of something a little more tropical…
In all seriousness however; I have to applaud any move toward increasing private property & land ownership in Russia.
I am uninformed as to what sort of property-rights, Land Title laws, & Judicial enforcement of such, in Russia, but on the face, it sounds like a step in the right direction. (I come from a family of Land Surveyors & Civil Engineers, anything that encourages people to own their own, surveyed & Titled-land, is ok with me.)
2.5 acres isn’t a whole lot as far as to farming, I wonder if people are allowed to aggregate bigger tracts?
Correct me if I’m wrong–weren’t our Homestead Grants on the order of 120 acres?
(Railroads were given 100 miles on both side of the track, but that’s a different topic entirely.)
The first homestead law awarded 160 acres. They later amended that to 640 for the west, where a larger plot was required to make the farm profitable.
Thanks Mr. Z.,
I should know this stuff cold…George Washington was a Land Surveyor.
(640 acres is a square-mile, “more-or-less,” that I do know!)
tangential– technology has been an absolute boom to Land Surveying & Civil Engineering. Not as glamorous as Space but accurately measuring & locating square-lots, on a round Planet, presents its own difficulties.
I’ll have to echo Wayne in that a single hectare isn’t much of a homestead. My late paternal grandparents lived on a 4-acre property. Half an acre was for the house and surrounding lawns. The rest was split between a small mixed orchard that included apple, pear and black walnut trees and a vegetable garden that grew tomatoes, corn, green beans, navy beans, carrots, radishes, cabbages and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Cooking and canning most of the crops in mason jars allowed the grandfolks to “live off the land” to a considerable degree for much of any given year. They bought all their meat and dairy in stores, though. A single hectare isn’t going to make any homesteading Russian self-reliant in food. And I’m also guessing the Siberian growing season isn’t exactly comparable to that in central Ohio.
Still, as the old saying about dancing bears (weirdly appropriate) has it, “The wonder of the thing is not that the bear dances badly, but that it dances at all.”
There are 3 keys to this:
1.) The size of plots can be expanded later.
2.) It avoids disturbing whoever still profits from the great “communes” set up during the 1930s. Those hectares still produce much of Russia’s food, even though they may not be run by a party apparatchik.
3.) If this works well in the Far East, it may prove itself worthy of being integrated into the already existing structure of major Russian grain and meat production. At that point the political price for disturbing those of Putin’s cronies that control distribution there could drop steeply.
So, about 100 years *after* “the communes” kicked into high gear under Stalin, they *may* finally have seen heir last effects extinguished.
Two thoughts. Bring a really good winter coat. And don’t be surprised if Putin changes the rules at a moment’s notice.
I listen to transmissions from Laika the Space Dog, at http://www.thepeoplescube.com
“Are you shovel-ready, Comrade?”