The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village: Politics and Property Rights in the Black Earth

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
List of Maps, Illustrations, and Tables......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Note on Transliteration......Page 17
Note on Sources and Methodology......Page 19
Newspapers and Statistics......Page 20
Interviews and Ethnographic Research Techniques......Page 22
Glossary......Page 27
The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village......Page 31
Introduction......Page 33
The Paradox of Ownership......Page 34
Privatization Globally and in the Black Earth......Page 37
Alternative Explanations......Page 44
Explaining Convergence......Page 48
Local Politics and Political Theory......Page 51
The Evidence......Page 55
The Argument......Page 59
1 Things Fall Apart......Page 60
Our Heavy Cross......Page 61
“Vikings” and Hutsuls......Page 65
Fighting for Every Worker......Page 69
No Right to Remain Silent......Page 72
Our Daily Bread......Page 75
Care for People......Page 80
2 Keeping the Collectives......Page 85
Each Will Know He Is an Owner......Page 86
One Revolution Is Enough......Page 89
With Only My Stamp in My Hand......Page 95
You Can’t Invite Everyone......Page 98
The State Farm Kept All the Certificates for Itself......Page 101
Do Not Allow Dissolution......Page 104
We’re All Among Friends Here......Page 107
Whoever Doesn’t Have a Shovel, Go and Buy One......Page 110
The Land Is Quietly Being Taken from Us......Page 114
3 The Social Origins of Private Farmers......Page 117
The Chairman Was Against It......Page 118
Serious Slips Were Allowed......Page 119
Other Than a Shovel and a Pitchfork, I Have Nothing......Page 122
Impossible to Obtain Land through Normal Channels......Page 123
Familiar Last Names......Page 126
Apply Pressure Where Necessary......Page 127
They’re Inserting Sticks in the Wheels......Page 134
Conclusion......Page 142
4 A Return to Regulation......Page 145
Pressure Has Remained......Page 147
Supplicants and Justice Seekers......Page 152
Honest, Solid People......Page 155
Their Legs Cut Out from under Them......Page 159
Land Must Work for People, Not for Weeds......Page 163
Conclusion......Page 169
5 The Politics of Payment......Page 171
Only Enough to Feed the Chickens......Page 174
A “Wretched” Payment......Page 179
No Salary, No Incentive......Page 183
Everything Up Through Burial......Page 188
However They Arrange It......Page 190
Half Starved and Dressed Almost in Rags......Page 193
Conclusion......Page 196
6 The Facade......Page 198
The Same Old Collective Farm......Page 200
We’re Fated to Live Together, Inseparably......Page 206
Everything Is Being Cleaned Out......Page 209
And Where Will I Steal?......Page 213
This Was Done Deliberately......Page 217
Conclusion......Page 221
Dispossession through Privatization......Page 222
Lessons from Post-Socialism......Page 227
The Significance of the Facade......Page 229
Cows and Dispossession......Page 231
Index......Page 233