Restoration attempt of private landed property in the North Caucasus in the conditions of Nazi occupation (August 1942 - January 1943)

On the basis of archival materials and foreign studies the article explores the Germany’s attempt to restore private ownership of land during Nazi occupation of the North Caucasus in August 1942 - January 1943. The land issue in the region was viewed by Berlin as a source of political dividends and as a tool of contrasting “old” and “new” order. It also was carrying out propaganda function. These ideas were mainly determined by costs of Soviet collectivization and the repressions in the Cossack and mountain areas in the 1930s, was dictated by the need to prevent rebels in the occupied areas against Nazi policy. Despite being initially focused on the fast pursue of agrarian reform Germany’s position on the transition from collective forms of land ownership to private one featured a complex and ambiguous character. An abolishment of the collective farm system and practical developments in the land issue in the occupied regions of the North Caucasus in December 1942 gave greater and faster results than in the other agricultural areas of the USSR. However, the clashes between political and economic motives of Nazi occupation regime in the agricultural sector led up to the barriers hampering the realization of reform in the region.