Maakorraldus kui oluline sotsiaal-majanduslik protsess Eesti Vabariigi algusaegadel (II)

Abstract

Land consolidation as an essential socio-economic process in the early days of the Republic of Estonia, II

This article analyses the solution of the land issue from the land consolidation aspect, mainly in the first decade of the Republic of Estonia (1918–28); it also provides an overview of changes made in land consolidation institutions in the 1930s. The period from 1918 to 1928 included significant changes in the reorganisation of land use and ownership, especially in the planning and division of former manor lands, as well as other land consolidation work aimed at transforming land use to provide a source of livelihood for as many people as possible. In the context of that time, land consolidation should be understood as an activity aimed at creating vibale farms or craftsman’s homesteads, concentrating the usable land as much as possible around the buildings as a single tract of land. Land consolidation was carried out on state and private land. If an agreement was not reached with the owner of private land, land consolidation was carried out under compulsion by the state. All this needed functioning institutions. The article discusses the history of forming land consolidation institutions and the changes made in their structure. Changes in the jurisdiction and decision-making rights of land consolidation institutions, as well as the procedure for contesting the decisions of those institutions, are investigated. The article analyses the development of the land consolidation law of the Republic of Estonia, highlighting the features it shared with the Russian Land Consolidation Act of 1911.

Sensible land planning, creating new plots for farms or craftsman’s homesteads, exchanging land, and eliminating scattered lands and land in strips required exceptional competence and knowledge in land consolidation and legal matters. However, the transformation of land use and ownership through many different legal acts resulted in a legal mess. Implementing changes required a well-thought-out structure for land consolidation institutions. The implementation of the Russian Empire’s Land Consolidation Act in the reorganisation of the peasants’ allotments in the trans- Narva and Pechory District into demarcated farms was practical evidence that land consolidation institutions with extensive rights could expediently handle complex land issues in situations where the preparation of the land consolidation plan had to consider different legal bases.

The previous work experience of Estonian officials in the Russian Empire, including the experience of implementing the Russian Empire’s Land Consolidation Act of 1911, also became decisive for the structure of the land consolidation institutions created in Estonia in 1926, which were similar in structure and rights to the former Russian Empire’s land consolidation institutions. The most significant similarity was that Estonian land consolidation institutions were also essentially given judicial functions. The work of the impartial commission made it possible to achieve the primary goal of land consolidation in such a way that the rights of individuals were protected. On the one hand, it allowed decisions to be made at the level of professionals and, on the other hand, kept the simultaneous, purposeful, and rapid implementation of land reform and additional necessary land consolidation work under the leading control of the state. Land consolidation primarily aimed to improve agriculture’s profitability by creating prerequisites for using land as productively as possible. Alongside this economic task, however, the social task of land consolidation remained important – to ensure livelihood opportunities for everyone.

It can be concluded from analysing the formation and development of the land consolidation law in the Republic of Estonia in 1918−40 that the influence of the Russian Empire’s land consolidation law was recognisable in the land reform process of land planning. When drafting the Land Consolidation Act of 1926, the Russian Empire’s law was used as a model, especially in the structure of land consolidation institutions and the broad (judicial) rights granted to the commissions. The influence of the Land Consolidation Act of the Russian Empire on the structure and rights of land consolidation institutions continued in the updated Estonian Land Consolidation Act, which was passed in 1937.