The wish here is not for a return of the feudal estates of the pre-revolution era but a return of the land to the people
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A law currently for consideration in the State Duma would grant every Russians at least one hectare of land for free use under the estates. The document guarantees the right of Russian citizens on the ground as the main national wealth.
“This plot of land citizen can possess, dispose of and bequeath”, said the deputy head of the LDPR faction, Yaroslav Nilov, which is one of the sponsors of the bill.
The minimum size of land, which will be given free of any charges to citizen for such a family estate, can not be less than one hectare.
Any such area of land in the hands of individual families for their estate will create a “balanced ecological system of the fruit, berries, nuts and other perennial plants, with the presence of bodies of water and green areas – habitats of animals, birds, insects and other living organisms”.
The maximum size of the plot is proposed to be established by the various regions in their individual laws.
The right to such an ancestral estate will be non-pecuniary in nature and, as already stated, free of any charges. Citizens on such estates will be exempt from taxation on the sale of manufactured products and/or produce and on the land itself. And the same shall apply to him and his family and any and all residential building that are located on such a site.
In addition, such an estate can not be bought, sold, leased, shared or passed on, except, so it is understood, as inheritance. It also will not be able to confiscated and seized for public use.
The law, if adopted, will come into force on 1 July 2014.
According to the authors of the document, it will revive the village to settle depopulated land away from major shopping centers, and to get rid of poverty and misery. It will strengthen the institution of the family, restore the fertility of agricultural land and improve the food security of the country's citizens through organic food, and will generally provide a “solid foundation of spiritual revival of society”.
This call for a return to the family estate villages is a reminder of the call of the Tsarina Katherine the Great which made many Germans, who replied to her call, to Russian-Germans in just such kind of villages, until the Stalinists came and confiscated the land and deported the people to Siberia.
While the Russian LDPR party is but a small party and may not have all that great an influence and some may with to, therefore, discount them let's wish them and others who are backing this proposal luck and let's hope that such a law can become reality.
It would appear that the proposed law is very much inspired by the Anastasia books, aka Ringing Cedars, which set forth the development of such villages of multi-generational family estates.
Russia and many of its politicians seem to understand what those in the West don't. Namely that food security does not come from big agricultural operations but from smallholding in the village setting.
Russia has already proven that this works with the privately owned plots of land with dachas in the countryside where more food, per hectare is being grown (and brought to market) by private individuals and families than by the agricultural industry in either Russia or the West. Prove that we do not need genetically manipulated and engineered organisms to feed the world but proper agriculture, on the small scale.
Maybe the West can learn from those proposals and the people could actually demand such actions in order for us the regenerate the land and its people.
We need a new system and not a new government. In fact, government is but a hindrance the the system as it stands destroys the Earth and everything on it.
© 2013
