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...
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