__NOTOC__ A State Agricultural Farm ( pl, Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne, PGR) was a form of

collective farming Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

in the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

, similar to

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, abbreviated from ''советское хозяйство'', "sovetskoye khozyaystvo (sovkhoz)"; ) was a form of state-owned farm in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted wit ...

and to the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Volkseigenes Gut The ''Volkseigenes Gut'' (German for "People-Owned Property" or "Publicly Owned Estate"; abbreviated VEG) was a state-owned farm in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), corresponding to the Soviet ''Sovkhoz'' and the ''Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rol ...

. They were created in 1949 as a form of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

ownership of agricultural land by the government. They were primarily formed on the ''

Regained Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...

'' - lands that Poland acquired from Germany after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

- but existed throughout Poland. Some farms took over farms of monasteries, e.g. in Szczyrzyc, see the picture. Relatively inefficient and subsidized by the government, most PGRs went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...

quickly after the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

and adoption of a

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...

by Poland. The state ran many specialised farms, which bred and trained horses (especially Arabians, e.g.

Bask Bask may refer to: * to bask, or to sunbathe * Bask, Gilan, Iran; a village * Kalle Bask, a Finnish sailor * Bask (horse) (1956–1979), an Arabian stallion * Bask Om, a fictional character from Zeta Gundam * Bäsk, a Swedish liquor * FK BASK (Ф� ...

), bred cows, fishes, produced certified seed and potatoes. Some of the farms were state ones before the World War II. Many of the specialised farms still exist, controlled by the Agricultural Property Agency.

Farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s were created primarily on the basis of the earlier estates. Many of these households were founded on the ''

''. After moving to the

under the Act of October 19, 1991 on agricultural property of the Treasury collective farms were liquidated and their assets were taken over by the Agricultural Property Agency of the Treasury (now

Agricultural Property Agency Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

), and their workers - 300 to 450 thousand people - joined the ranks of the

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

. Households that have not been sold or leased were administered by the Agency of the State Treasury and managed by administrators appointed by the Agency. Then sought to sell or lease property holdings and the accompanying holdings, such as apartments, holiday resorts, etc. The social base has also been a sale of land to individual

farmers A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...

. The weakest part of the land remained undeveloped for several years. The process of selling and leasing land societies and social services continues. Liquidation of state-owned farms has often been restricted, or permanent abandonment of animal husbandry, crop production limitation, changes in farming methods. This led to a drastic reduction of jobs and the resulting wide range of local problems; in many regions, PGR were the only employer, the new owners after restructuring usually significantly reduced the employment. State-owned farms were very often the organizers of social life, and theoretically adequately met all the needs of

worker The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual labour, manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via wage, waged or salary, salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also "Designation ...

s. Their downfall has often caused damage to the structure of the local communities, which were not adapted to the new situation of economic activity. It has also devastated the property - partly as a result of theft, partly because of the lack of elementary security. On 22 July 2008 in Bolegorzyn, near

Złocieniec Złocieniec (; formerly german: Falkenburg) is a town in northwestern Poland. Located in West Pomeranian Voivodeship's Drawsko County since 1999, it was previously a part of Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998). The population of Złocieniec is a ...

a museum of the State Farms was opened.Abstract release to open the museum in Bolegorzynie
(July 2008)

Gallery

File: Wieżanka PGR.jpg , PGR Wieżanka File: Żelechów-PGR.jpg , PGR

Żelechów Żelechów (Yiddish language, Yiddish זשעלעכאָוו) is a town in east Poland in Masovian Voivodeship in Garwolin County. It is the seat of Gmina Żelechów. Żelechów is from Warsaw and far from Lublin. More than 4000 people live in t ...

File: Kroscienko PGR 1.jpg, PGR Krościenko File: Budynek PGR w Gwoździanach.jpg, PGR Gwoździany File: Rybotycze PGR.jpg , PGR

Rybotycze Rybotycze ( yi, ריבאטיטש, Ribatitch) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Fredropol, within Przemyśl County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine. It lies approximately so ...

File: Graziowa PGR.jpg , PGR Grąziowa File: Pieszcz, dawny PGR.jpg , PGR Pieszcz File: Wielopole PGR.jpg , PGR Wielopole File: Pozostałości po PGR Grabowo.jpg, PGR Grabowo

Notes

{{reflist

External links

Museum of PGR Bolegorzynie

Agricultural Property Agency

* Irena Topińska
Poland: Human Development Progress Towards the MDGs at the Sub-National Level

Gallery

See also

Notes

External links

Further reading