The development of Agrarian capitalism in Russia 1991–97: Some observations from fieldwork

This analysis reports the first results of fieldwork carried out in the mixed grain and dairy farming areas of northern and central European Russia in the summers of 1996 and 1997. The survey data collected show, predictably, a massive decline in output and investment on all farms — whether former state and collective farms or the new family farms. The effects of the agrarian slump are not equally distributed, however. A minority of the former state and collective farms in particular are surviving and restructuring in and through the present crisis. This article describes and analyses this restructuring process and considers some of its possible implications for the future and for the development prospects of an agrarian capitalism in Russia.