Land Socialization
토지 사회화
The core agrarian program of the Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Party, which abolished private land ownership, converted all land into a common fund, and entrusted its egalitarian distribution based on labor norms to organs of peasant self-government. Theorized by Victor Chernov, land socialization differed from Bolshevik nationalization: it barred purchase, sale, and inheritance of land and vested authority in local communities rather than the state, embodying the principle 'land to those who work it.' It propelled the SRs to a landslide victory in the 1917 Constituent Assembly election, but after the Assembly's dissolution in January 1918, the Bolsheviks appropriated the label in the 'Fundamental Law of Land Socialization' while replacing its content with state ownership.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) SR party program section detailing the three elements of социализация земли: abolition of private property, transfer to self-governing bodies, egalitarian-labor use
- Wikipedia (EN) 'land-socialization as opposed to the Bolshevik programme of land-nationalization' and Chernov's role as chief theorist
- soviethistory.msu.edu Full text of the February 1918 Fundamental Law of Land Socialization showing Bolshevik appropriation of the SR concept
- booksite.ru Great Soviet Encyclopedia entry on социализация земли confirming the SR origin in 1906 and the Bolshevik critical assessment