Subjectivities of Owning Land: Land Redistribution and the Nation State in the Baltics Across the 20th Century (SOL)

The SOL project investigates how land redistribution has shaped societies in the Baltic region. By reconstructing the effects of land reform, collectivisation and privatisation on subjectivities, SOL bridges the deep divides in the region's history.

The question of who is allowed to own land is a key issue for social, economic and political systems worldwide. For owners, land can guarantee both livelihoods and social status. For modern states, on the other hand, control of land ownership (and agricultural production) is linked in a special way to national sovereignty. Land redistribution policies therefore aim to deepen the relationship between the rural population and the state by shaping social identities and giving the state legitimacy. For this reason, land distribution and reform play a decisive role in revolutions and political upheavals. Land reforms have thus become a yardstick for democratisation, economic empowerment and social integration.

The SOL project examines the extent to which successive land redistribution projects shaped the history of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) in the 20th century and led to a specific relationship between society and the state. SOL brings together the land reforms of the interwar nation states that emerged after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the collectivisation that followed the Soviet annexation, and the privatisation of 1991. The land reforms of the interwar period and the privatisation of the 1990s played a central role in political and economic terms in the internal state structure and integration into a new international order, while collectivisation is central to the Sovietisation of the region.   

SOL focuses on the transformative land redistributions of both eras through an interdisciplinary analytical framework of ‘subjectivity’ in order to examine the long-term effects on societies. It examines how uncertainty about the future of property norms shaped land redistribution projects, how land redistribution changed self-images and concepts of individuals, families and gender roles, communities and societies, and thus shaped identities as well as loyalties.