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Soviet legislature approves land-leasing law
MOSCOW - Legislators over
whelmingly approved a bill Wednes
day that allows Soviets to acquire
land and bequeath it to their children,
a major modification of decades of
state control of land.
The law, however, stops short of
legalizing full private ownership of
property by strictly forbidding the
sale of land. Under the new law, plots
can only be leased, and the lease
prices will be set by the state.
The measure was part of a com
prehensive package designed to give
the force of law to the economic and
social reforms championed by Presi
dent Mikhail Gorbachev. The official
news agency Tasf called it “a major
legal document of Soviet economic
reform.”
The law is to serve as the basis for
further legislation by each republic to
regulate land distribution.
State ownership of land, inscribed
in the Soviet Constitution, has been a
cornerstone of communism since the
1917 revolution. But reformers and
economists repeatedly have called for
allowing private ownership as a way
of spurring growth in the troubled
economy.
In a commentary in Wednesday’s
edition of the newspaper Komso
molskaya Pravda, economist Pavel
Voshchanov welcomed the reform as
a first step to reversing a situation in
which the Soviet Union, with some of
the richest farmland on Earth, has
become a net importer of food.
The Soviet Constitution says “the
land, its minerals, waters and forests
are the exclusive property of the state.’
The Congress of People’s Deputies,
the Supreme Soviet’s parent body,
will be asked to change the Constitution
when it meets March 12.
By altering the Constitution and
allowing the roughly 23 million people
employed on the 26,000 collective
and 23,000 state farms to acquire
plots, the Kremlin leadership hopes
to raise farm productivity, which is
notoriously low on those farms.
The Supreme Soviet legislature first
voted separately on each chapter of
the 52-article measure, then approved
the entire law 349-7 with 12 absten
tions. The full Congress of People’s
Deputies must now approve it.
Under the law, land is not actually
purchased but leased, and is subject
to taxes. Lease prices will be set by
the state and sale of the plot will be
strictly forbidden, the law says.
The land may be bequeathed to the
holder’s children. But the children
would not be allowed to divide the
plot, and the land may be revoked if
the state determines that it has not
been utilized in a “rational” way or
if the holder seriously pollutes it.
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards
472- 1766
Managing Editor Ryan Steeves
Assoc. News Editors Lisa Donovan
Eric Planner
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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