Post-Soviet transformation of agriculture: A success after all?[Постсоветская Трансформация Сельского Хозяйства: И Все-Таки Успех?]

In the presentation at the scientific seminar “Agrarian reform in the former USSR countries” of the Center for Agrarian Studies (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) on November 24, 2021, the author presented the results of the comparative studies of agrarian reforms in the post-Soviet countries. Based on an extensive analysis of scientific research and international and national statistics, the presentation explains changes in the reforming of the agrarian sector in various post-Soviet countries, identifies factors that determined changes in the initial tasks of reforms, and results achieved so far, some of which can be considered quite paradoxical. The author emphasizes the importance of both the institutional political paradigm as a basis of reforms and the prevailing branches of the agrarian economy, which inevitably determine an optimal economic direction for the development of the agrarian sector. The empirical analysis conducted by the author raises some questions that remain open, for instance, whether reforms can help to skip over a step in the agrarian evolution, or how sustainable are those economic forms that develop within a specific national economy.