# The Land Revolution in Russia/Decree on Land Socialisation of February 19, 1918

DECREE ON LAND SOCIALISATION
Of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates. (Promulgated on February 19, 1918).
PART I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
Art. 1. All property in land, underground wealth, waters, forests and living natural forces on the territory of the Russian Federal Soviet Republic is hereby abolished for all time.
Art. 2. The land is hereby handed over for use to the entire labouring people without any, overt or covert, redemption fees.
Art. 3. The right to use the land belongs only to those who till it by their own labour, except in cases expressly provided by the present law.
Art. 4. The right to use the land shall not be restricted either by sex, religion, race or nationality (including foreign).
Art. 5. The right to use the subsoil wealth, forests, waters and natural forces is vested, in accordance with their respective importance, in District, Provincial, Regional or Federal Soviet State authority under the control of the latter. The mode of using and disposing of the sub-soil wealth, forests, waters, or the living forces of nature, is to be defined by a special law.
Art. 6. All private agricultural machinery and live stock on farms which are worked by hired labour pass, without compensation, to the Land Departments of the District, Provincial, Regional or Federal Soviets in accordance with the degree of their importance.
Art. 7. All buildings of farms, comprised in Art. 6, and agricultural industries attached to them are vested, without compensation, in the District, Provincial, Regional or Federal Soviets in accordance with their importance.
Art. 8. All non-able-bodied persons who are deprived of all their means of livelihood by the present law alienating their estates, forests, stocks and other properties on the said estates, may, pending the issue of a general law of insurance of non-able-bodied citizens, and on a certificate from the local courts and the Land Departments of the Soviets, draw a pension, equivalent to that received by soldiers, for the remaining period of their lives, or until the attainment of majority, as the case may be.
Art. 9. The distribution of agricultural land among the labouring population is vested in the Village, Cantonal, District, Provincial, Regional or Federal Land Departments of the Soviets in accordance with their importance.
​Art. 10. The lands which are held in reserve are vested, in each Republic, in the Land Departments of the main or Federal Soviets.
Art. 11. Over and above the equitable distribution of agricultural land among the labouring population and the most productive possible exploitation of natural riches, the land administration of the Land Departments of the local and central Soviet authority aims at the following objects:—
(a) To bring about such conditions as would favour the growth of the productive forces of the country, such as an increase of the fertility of the soil, the improvement of the technical methods of agriculture, and the increase of agricultural knowledge among the labouring masses of the agricultural population.
(b) To form a reserve stock of lands having agricultural value.
(c) To develop such kindred industries as horticulture, apiculture, vegetable gardening, cattle-breeding, dairy farming, etc.
(d) To accelerate the passage from inadequate to more productive systems of land-tillage in the different zones by an even distribution of working farmers.
(e) To foster collective farming as the more advantageous system in point of labour-saving and productivity, at the expense of individual farming, with a view to transition to Socialist agriculture.
Art. 12. The distribution of land among the labouring population shall be carried out on the principle of equalised labour in such a wise that the combined normal unit of food and labour, adapted to the historical system of land-tenure prevalent in each locality, does not exceed the labour capacity of each farming household and yet enables each family to live in adequate sufficiency.
Art. 13. Personal labour constitutes the general and fundamental basis of the right to use land of agricultural value. In addition, the organs of Soviet authority have the right, with a view to the improvement of agriculture by the organisation of model farms or experimental and index stations, to borrow limited plots from the reserve stock (former monastic, State, Imperial family, Tsar's personal and private owners' lands) and to work them by State-paid labour, such labour to be subject to workers' control according to general rule.
Art. 14. All citizens engaged in agriculture shall be insured at the expense of the State against death, old age, sickness and accidents impairing their capacity for work.
​Art. 15. All incapacitated agriculturists and non-able-bodied members of their families shall be cared for at the expense of the organs of Soviet authority.
Art. 16. All working farms shall be insured against fire, foot-and-mouth disease, failure of harvest, drought, hail and other elemental calamities by way of mutual Soviets' insurance.
Art. 17. All surplus revenue resulting from the natural fertility of lands of better quality or from their more advantageous situation as regards the market shall be remitted to the local Soviet authorities for public needs.
Art. 18. The trade in agricultural machinery and seeds constitutes a monopoly of the Soviet authorities.
Art. 19. Both external and internal corn trade shall be a monopoly of the State.
PART II.
THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 20. The right to use definite plots of surface land for public and private needs on the territory of the Russian Soviet Federal Republic belongs to:—
(a) For cultural and educational purposes.
1. The State as represented by the organs of State authority, Federal, Regional, Provincial, District, Cantonal and Village.
2. Public bodies, with the sanction and under the control of the local Soviet authorities.
(b) For agricultural purposes.
3. Agricultural Communes.
4. Agricultural co-operative societies.
5. Village Communities.
6. Individual families and persons.
(c) For building purposes.
7. Soviet authorities
8. Public bodies and individual families and persons, provided the buildings are not used for making profit.
9. Commercial, industrial and transport businesses, by special permission and under the control of the Soviet authorities.
(d) For traffic purposes.
10. The Soviet authorities, Federal, Regional, Provincial, District, Cantonal and Village, according to the importance of the means of communication.
PART III.
THE MODE OF GRANTING LAND FOR USE.
Art. 21. In the first instance, land for use is granted to those who intend working on it, not for their own private profit, but for public benefit.
Art. 22. The following order is to be observed in granting the use of land for agriculture for private gain:—
First, to that part of the local agricultural population which has no, or insufficient land, as well as the local agricultural labourers, both on equal terms.
Second, to that part of the agricultural population which has immigrated into the locality after the promulgation of the present Decree.
Third, to the non-agricultural population in the order in which they have registered in the Land Department of the local Soviet authority.
Note.—In determining the mode and order of granting the use of lands, preference is to be given to working agricultural co-operatives as against individuals.
Art. 23. The use of lands for horticulture, market-gardening, apiculture, fishing, cattle-breeding and afforestation is to be granted on the following principles:—
First, such lands as are unsuitable for agriculture, and second, such lands suitable for agriculture, which by reason of local conditions are more suitable for this or other farming pursuit.
Art. 24. In rural localities land for building purposes is allotted by the local Soviet and local population. In urban localities land for building purposes is allotted, according to the order of applications, by the local Soviet, on the condition that the building shall not injure the other buildings in the neighbourhood and that it satisfies all the requirements of the building bye-laws.
Note.—Land for public buildings is allotted without regard to the order of applications.
PART IV.
ESTABLISHMENT OF A NORMAL UNIT OF FOOD AND LABOUR.
Art. 25. The quantity of land allotted to individual households for agriculture with a view to gaining a livelihood shall not exceed the combined normal unit of food and labour in the respective zone, as calculated on the basis of the INSTRUCTIONS appended herewith.
Instruction for determining the normal unit of food and labour in respect of the use of land of agricultural value.
1. All agricultural Russia is divided into as many zones as there are traditional systems of tillage at the present economic stage of development (such as the fallow-land, three-field, eight-field, multi-field, crop-rotation, and other systems).
2. For each of these zones a special food-and-labour unit shall be established, which may be altered within each zone for this or other farm land on the ground of climatic conditions, the natural fertility of the soil, proximity to the market (town or railway), and others of a local nature.
3. With a view to an exact calculation of this normal unit in each zone an agricultural census shall be taken in the near future all over Russia.
Note.—A complete survey of the land is to be taken immediately after the present DECREE has been carried out.
4. The distribution of land on the principle of equal labour-quantities among the agricultural population is to be effected zone by zone in the manner provided for by the present DECREE.
Note.—Pending the complete application of the present Decree in the various localities, the relations of the agriculturists are regulated by the Land Departments of the Soviets, in accordance with a special instruction to be issued on the subject.
5. The normal unit of food and labour in a zone is to be determined by the normal, that is, average-sized farm-household in one of the districts (or any other administrative and farming unit, equal in size) of the zone, having a density of population which is the lowest in the zone, and such a proportion of various kinds of lands (arable, pasture, alluvial, dried-up, meadow, waste, kitchen-garden, etc.) as would be judged by the local population (as represented by the Regional or Provincial meeting of the Land Departments of the Soviets) to be the most normal, that is, most suitable for agrculture of the type prevailing in the zone.
6. In determining the average, now prevailing, type of peasant land tenure, only those lands must, in the first instance, be taken into consideration which were de facto held by the working peasants before 1917, that is, those which had been bought by village communities, peasant co-operative societies and individual persons; as well as those held on lease or as allotments from the time of Emancipation.
7. Woods, subsoil minerals and waters are to be excluded from the above computation.
​8. The computation also excludes all private farms hitherto worked by hired labour and held de facto in ownership or lease by the State, private banks, monasteries, the former Imperial family, and landlords, including the ex-Tsar and the Church, since they are to form the Land Reserve Stock, out of which allotments are to be made to all peasants having no lands at all, or only such quantities which are below the now prevailing peasant normal unit of food and labour.
9. In calculating the entire quantity of land held de facto by the working peasants before the Revolution of 1917, it is necessary to compute it in respect of each kind of land separately, such as arable, meadow, pasture, alluvial, etc.
10. This computation is to be made both in absolute figures and in percentages of the total quantities, for each individual household-farm, for the village community, canton, district, province, region, or the entire zone.
11. In thus computing the total quantity of lands it is necessary to establish the quality of productivity of each typical dessyatin of arable and meadow land on the basis of the crop per dessyatin of each soil in the zone, calculated in poods of corn or hay on the figures of the last ten years.
12. Along with the computation of the quantity and quality of the land, it is necessary to calculate the entire population in the given zone, which is engaged in agriculture or is dependent upon it.
13. The census of the population engaged in agriculture must be made according to sex and age as well as family status for each farming unit separately, afterwards summing up the figures according to village, canton, district and province in the zone.
14. In taking the census of the population it is necessary to compute the number of labour power units (L.P.) and of mouths, for which purpose the entire population is divided according to age, thus:-
Non-able-bodied.
Girls up to the age of 12. Boys up to the age of 12. Men after the age of 60. Women after the age of 50.
(Non-able-bodied persons through sickness are registered separately according to physical or mental sickness).
Able-bodied. :
| Men | between the | ages of | 18 | and | 60 | 1.0 |
| Women | between the„ | ages of„ | 18 | and„ | 50 | .8 |
| Boys | between the„ | ages of„ | 12 | and„ | 16 | .5 |
| Girls | between the„ | ages of„ | 12 | and„ | 16 | .5 |
| Boys | between the„ | ages of„ | 16 | and„ | 18 | .75 |
| Girls | between the„ | ages of„ | 16 | and„ | 18 | .6 |
15. The number of dessyatins per LP. is arrived at by the division of the total number of dessyatins by the number of LP.
16. The number of non-able-bodied mouths per LP. is determined by the division of the total number of non-able-bodied agricultural population by the number of LP.
17. It is also necessary to take a census of the number of working horned and small cattle which can be supported on one dessyatin by one LP.
18. In determining the average, now prevailing, size of peasant holding in a district which is taken as the fundamental unit for the entire zone, it is necessary to find the average (in point of quality and productivity) dessyatin, which average is the quotient in the division of the sum total of the crops collected from all the dessyatins of different soils by the number of these soils.
19. The average figure thus arrived at constitutes the basis for determining the normal food-and-labour unit to which the individual household-farms are to be levelled up from the Land Reserve throughout the zone.
Note.—Should the average figure determined as above be found, on a provisional computation, to be inadequate for enabling a household to live in sufficiency (vide Part I., Art. 12), it shall be increased from the Land Reserve.
20. In order to determine the quantity of land of different kinds (arable, pasture, meadow, etc.) requisite for supplementary allotment in the case of those who hold insufficient land, it is necessary to multiply the quantity of dessyatins per one LP. in the district by the sum total of the working agricultural LP. in the zone and subtract from the product the quantity of land held by working peasants.
21. By comparing the quantity of land (in figures and percentages, according to its different kinds) in the Land Reserve with the quantity of land requisite for supplementary allotments among those who hold insufficient land, it is necessary to compute whether a resettlement of the population can be effected within the limits of the given zone. If it can, the size and the absorbing capacity of the Land Reserve must be determined; if not, it is the number of family households to be settled in another zone which has to be determined.
Note.—Both in cases when free land is available and when it is not, the principal Land Departments of the Soviet authority must be kept informed as to where, how much and what kind of lands are available unoccupied.
​22. In connection with the supplementary allotment of lands among individual farms it is necessary exactly to compute the quantity and quality of the lands held by them according to kind (arable, pasture, meadow, etc.), the number of cattle according to stock, the composition of the family in respect of LP., mouths, etc.
23. When determining the supplementary allotment of lands among individual farms on the basis of the normal food-and-labour unit it is necessary to increase the allotment in proportion (1) to the excessive number of non-able-bodied mouths as compared with the LP., in the family; (2) to the poor quality of the lands already held by the family; and (3) to the quality of the land, arable or meadow, in the Land Reserve, out of which the allotment is to be made.
24. In the case of supplementary allotment of lands on the basis of the normal food-and-labour unit, should the quantity of lands of any kind be insufficient in a given district, the family is to be allotted a corresponding quantity of land of another kind.
PART V.
QUANTITY OF LAND TO BE ALLOTTED FOR BUILDING, EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL FARMING PURPOSES.
Art. 26. When land is intended not for agriculture, but for cultural and educational or industrial purposes as well as for buildings for personal needs, or for the pursuit of cattle-breeding, horticulture, and other farming pursuits, the quantity of land to be allotted must be determined by the local Soviets in accordance with the needs of the persons or bodies applying for the use of the land, and with the social utility of the purpose for which the land has been applied.
PART VI.
EMIGRATION AND RESETTLEMENT.
Art. 27. If the Free Land Reserve in a given zone proves insufficient to supply with supplementary allotments those who hold insufficient land, some of the latter may be settled in another zone where there is a sufficiency of free lands.
Art. 28. The transfer of agriculturists from one zone to another must be preceded by a resettlement of the agriculturists within that zone.
Art. 29. Both the transfer from one zone to another and the resettlement within the same zone must be carried out in such a wise that those most distant from the lands of the Land Reserve ​are transferred first, and that in case of equal distance the order in which the lands of the Land Reserve are distributed be as follows:—
(a) First come the agriculturists of that village in the vicinity of which the free lands are situated.
Note.—If there are several of such villages, preference is to be given to those who have hitherto tilled those lands.
(b) Second come the agriculturists of the canton within the boundaries of which the free lands are situated.
(c) Third come the agriculturists of the district within the boundaries of which the free lands are situated.
(d) Last come, if the given system of tillage embraces several provinces, the agriculturists of that province within the boundaries of which the free lands are situated.
Art. 30. This being the order to be observed in the distribution of lands, the following is the order in which the population is to be moved from one place to another: (a) volunteers; (b) village communities suffering most from lack of land; (c) land-needy agricultural co-operative societies, agricultural communes, families with abundant LP., and the smallest families.
Art. 31. The allotment of lands among land-needy families which have to be moved is to be carried out in the following order or rotation: (a) the smallest land-needy families: (b) the most land-needy families with abundant LP.; (c) land-needy village communities; (d) co-operative societies; and (e) agricultural communes.
Art. 32. The moving from one zone to another must be carried out in such a wise that the new locality should not only offer through the natural conditions a real chance for engaging in agriculture with success, but also, in respect of soil, climate, etc., correspond to the conditions of the old locality. It is also necessary to take into consideration the habits of life and the nationality of the settlers.
Art. 33. The settlement of agriculturists in new localities is to be carried out at the expense of the State.
Art. 34. It is the duty of the State to assist the new settlers in the provision of buildings as well as in the construction of roads, wells, ponds, and reservoirs, by the supply of agricultural implements and fertilisers, by artificial irrigation whenever necessary, and by the organisation of educational establishments.
Note.—With a view to the earliest possible development of Socialist agriculture, the State is to give every assistance to the new settlers in introducing collective farm management on scientific principles.
PART VII.
THE FORM OF TILLAGE.
Art. 35. With a view to the earliest realisation of Socialism, the State is to give every encouragement, material and moral, to the collective system of tillage, giving preference to the communist and co-operative farm management as against individual.
Art. 36. With a view to combating the interpolation, so harmful to the development of agriculture, in lands tilled by one party, of strips belonging to another, lands allotted for collective or individual tillage must, as far as possible, be concentrated on the same spot.
PART VIII.
ACQUISITION OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 37. The right to use the land is acquired on the strength of following qualifications:—
(a) For cultural and educational purposes.
1. Public utility.
(b) For agricultural purposes.
1. Personal labour.
(c) For building purposes.
1. Public utility or need.
2. Housing requirements.
3. Needs of a farm worked without hired labour.
(d) For the construction of ways of communication.
1. Public need.
PART IX.
PROCEDURE OF ACQUISITION OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 38. The acquisition of the right to use the land is preceded by the handing in of an application to this effect at the Land Department of the Soviet authority of the locality in which a person wishes to obtain a plot of land for use.
Art. 39. The application establishes the order in which it is examined, and its satisfaction in respect of the quantity of land applied for follows the general provisions of the present DECREE.
Note 1.—In addition to the full name and surname as well as residence of the applicant for the land, the application must show his previous application, the object for which the land is required, the family status or size of family, the quantity and kind of dead or live stock available, the place where land is applied for, the size of the plot required, and the ground for determining upon such size.
Note 2.—The decision of the Land Department of the Cantonal Soviet may be made, within one week, the subject of an appeal to the Land Department of the District Soviet, and the decision of the District Department may be appealed against, within a fortnight, to the Provincial Department.
Note 3.—The right to use the land (its subsoil, waters, forests and natural forces} can in no circumstances be acquired by purchase or lease or gift or inheritance or any other private transaction whatever.
PART X.
TAKING POSSESSION OF THE LAND, FOR USE.
Art. 40. The following in each individual case is the mode of taking possession of the land for use:—
Art. 41. For building purposes the right to the use of the land is made good by actual occupation of the land, or preparation for such occupation, within not more than three months after the receipt of notification from the local Soviet authority.
Note.—As actual preparation is to be regarded the collection of building material at the place of building or the conclusion of an agreement with men for the commencement of building operations at that place.
Art. 42. For farming pursuits of any semi-industrial kind without hired labour, the right to use the land is made good by actual engagement in the said pursuits at the commencement of the next agricultural season.
Art. 43. For the pursuit of agriculture, the right to till the land is made good by actual application of labour (not hired) all over the area, not later than the next agricultural season after the receipt of the notification of the Land Department of the local Soviet authority.
Note.—The construction of buildings of a permanent character on arable land is permitted with the special sanction of the Land Department of the local Soviet authority only.
Art. 44. Should it prove impossible for the user to take possession of the land allotted to him within the prescribed period, the Land Department of the local Soviet authority may grant a delay, if failure to take possession of the land has been due to serious reasons, such as illness of the labourer, natural calamity, etc.
PART XI.
TRANSFER OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 45. The right to use the land in anyone's occupation cannot be transferred to another person.
​Art. 46. The right to use the land is acquired by the procedure laid down in the present DECREE only, and cannot under any circumstances pass from one person to another.
PART XII.
SUSPENSION OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 47. The right of a person to use the land may be temporarily suspended without being totally extinguished.
Art. 48. Any person occupying land may cease using it without losing his right to use it at any future date (a) if a natural calamity (such as an overflow of a river or collapse of a dyke) temporarily prevents him from using it; (b) if he is visited by a temporary, but grave, illness; (c) if he has to perform some obligatory State or other public service, and in other socially deserving cases, pending the return of conditions enabling him to resume the use of the land.
Note.—The period of suspension is determined in each case by the Land Department of the local Soviet authority.
Art. 49. In all cases of interruption of agricultural activity, mentioned in the preceding article, as well as in cases of temporary disablement, death, etc., the local Soviet authority, with a view to the preservation of the property of the concern and the continuation of the production, must either organise public assistance for the farm or apply hired labour at the expense of the State and subject to the general rules of workers' control.
PART XIII.
THE EXTINCTION OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE LAND.
Art. 50. The right to use the land may become extinguished in respect either of the whole or of part of the working household or other unit.
Art. 51. The right to use the land may become extinguished in the case of a person either completely, or in respect of a particular plot of land.
Art. 52. The right to use the land becomes totally extinguished (a) in the case of an institution, with its abolition, or with the abolition of the object for which the land has been taken; (b) in the case of working associations, like co-operative societies or communes, with their breaking-up or their civil extinction as an economic unit; (c) in the case of individual citizens, with their death or loss of all civil right by a verdict of the courts; (d) in the case of physical impossibility for a person to carry on the pursuit, accompanied by the presence of other sources of livelihood (such as the receipt of a pension by the non-able-bodied).
​Art. 53. The right of using a given plot of land is extinguished:
(a) In cases of a formal refusal to use it.
(b) In cases of a refusal to use it, even if not accompanied by a formal refusal.
(c) In cases of employment of the land for prohibited purposes (such as turning the land into a dumping ground for rubbish).
(d) In cases of employment of the land in an unlawful manner (such as the secret employment of hired labour).
(e) In cases when the use of the land proves a nuisance to the neighbouring farms (as, for instance, in chemical manufacture).
Note.—The user of land is entitled, if his right to the land has been extinguished and he has not received adequate compensation in the form of revenue from it during the time of his occupation, to demand from the Land Department of the Soviet authority compensation for the still inexhausted improvements as well as for all labour invested by him in the soil, plantations and buildings.
(Signed),
Sverdloff, President of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Delegates.
Volodarsky, Zinovieff, Kamkoff, Lander, Muranoff, Matanson-Bobroff, Okuloff, Peterson, Spiridonova, Ushinoff, Members of the Presidential Bureau.
Avanessof, Smoliansey, Secretaries of the Central Executive Committee.
V. Ulianoff (Lenin), President of the Council of People's Commissaries.
A. Kalegayeff, People's Commissary for Agriculture.
The National Labour Press, Ltd., Manchester, Leicester and London.