Agrarian Reforms, =measures introducedby the state to change agrarian relationsand forms of landownership. The classcontent of agrarian reforms is totallydetermined by the country's social systemand its form of government. In capitalistcountries, reforms are turned againstremnants of feudalism, which obstruct theadvance of capitalism in agriculture. Theagrarian reforms introduced in thesocialist countries were part of the revolutionarytransformation of society. The GreatOctober Socialist Revolution in Russia offeredthe most complete and consistent solutionof the agrarian question. The Decree onLand passed by the Second All-RussiaCongress of Soviets on October 26, 1917,abolished, without any redemption, privateownership of the land and proclaimed itthe property of the whole people. The rulesfor land use were set down by the decreeOn Socialisation of the Land passed by theAll-Russia Executive Committee onFebruary 9, 1918. In the East Europeancountries which embarked on the road ofsocialist development after World War II,agrarian reforms were carried out from 1945 to1948 through confiscation and partition ofthe land and other means of agriculturalproduction by the peasants, led by theworking class: some of the cultivated land wasnationalised, but the bulk turned over toneedy farmers and agricultural workers astheir private property to establish new orexpand existing farms. The bulk of theforests, and all the mineral wealth and waterresources became the property of the state.One of the first decrees passed in Cubaafter the revolution was the AgrarianReform Law of May 17, 1959, which abolishedlarge landed estates and the latifundia ofNorth American companies. The NationalInstitute of Agrarian Reform (Institutenacional de la reforma agraria) was setup especially for the purpose. In thesocialist countries, agrarian reforms put an endto the landowner class, undermined theeconomic position of the kulaks (rich peasantswho employed hired labour), and providedfavourable conditions for a socialisttransformation of agriculture. The land thepeasants received from the agrarian reformcannot be sold, mortgaged, given away asa gift or leased. When building a newsociety, the socialist countries adapted tonational conditions the experience of theSoviet Union, turning small peasantholdings into large socialist agriculturalenterprises. The developing countries that havechosen the socialist way introduce agrarianreforms for the purpose of socialisingproduction on a nation-wide scale, unitingpeasants in cooperatives and setting up anextensive network of state agriculturalenterprises. In this way, they hope to providethe necessary conditions for raising thestandard of living. The agrarian reformscarried out in the developing countries bythe national bourgeoisie have not put anend to unequal distribution of land and thesemi-feudal exploitation of peasants. AfterWorld War II, agrarian reforms turnedagainst the remnants of feudalism inagriculture and the pre-capitalist forms oforganising the economy were introduced ina number of developed capitalist countries.But they have not given land to the peasants.The communist and workers' parties in thedeveloped capitalist countries advanceradical agrarian programmes envisagingexpropriation of big landed estatesand the land being turned over to thosewho cultivate it, i. e., the toilingpeasants. surplus valueproduced by an absolute increase inworking hours, which is a way of intensifyingthe exploitation of workers by capitalists.The creation of absolute surplus value isthe universal basis of capitalist exploitation.It prevailed in the early stages of capitalistdevelopment, prior to the age of large-scalemachine production. A condition for thecreation of absolute surplus value isextention of the working day beyond the necessary working time, i.