Agrarian policy in Ukraine during the National-Democratic Revolution of 1917-1921: experience for contemporary agrarian transformations

• Main Author: Serhii Kornovenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Scientific Research Centre «Lukomorie» 2021-01-01
• Series: Емінак
• Subjects: agrarianism, ukrainian agrarianism, peasant revolution, ukrainian revolution, peasantry
• Online Access: https://www.eminak.net.ua/index.php/eminak/article/view/467

The experience of the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 is especially relevant for modern Ukraine. Modern geopolitical transformations, radical changes in the domestic political life of Ukraine, ambitious plans of the government are a chance for our state to restore its full-fledged subjectivity in the international arena, in the domestic life of the country. An effective mechanism of external and internal subjectivization of Ukraine, given the longevity of agricultural culture (in a broad sense), can be agrarian policy, its effective implementation. This implies not only a clear understanding on the part of the state of the essence of agrarian policy, its purpose, stages and mechanisms of implementation. The author of the article aims to propose, taking into account the agrarian transformations of the Ukrainian revolution, a possible model of the latest agrarian transformations. Under modern conditions, the most discussed issue is the feasibility/inexpediency of opening a land market in Ukraine. The heated debate on this is primarily about the socio-economic and socio-political consequences. Last but not least, the debaters in the discussions focus on only one segment of this multifaceted phenomenon – foreign land tenure/land use/land management. That is, they are only interested in the institution of private land ownership for foreigners on the whole set of issues. The main risks of opening the land market: external and internal. External: desubjectification of Ukraine, increasing dependence on foreign capital, especially credit one, loss of status of the granary of Europe, reduction of foreign exchange earnings to the budget, desoilization (dechernozemization). Internal: legalization of the agrarian oligarchy, desubjectification of power, degradation of civil society, increasing shadowing of the economy in general, agro-industrial complex in particular, the absence of the middle class – the social basis of the state, the extinction of the countryside, its disappearance as a socio-economic, socio-political, spiritual-cultural component of the Ukrainian political nation, strengthening the demographic challenges, etc.