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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, similar to
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
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 ...
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 opposi ...
- 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 debtor ...
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 Nat ...
and adoption of a
market economy 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 ( ...
), 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 ...
s were created primarily on the basis of the earlier
estates. Many of these households were founded 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 ...
''.
After moving to the
market economy 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), 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 refere ...
. 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. 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
workers. 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 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 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 the town. It is a ...
File: Kroscienko PGR 1.jpg, PGR Krościenko
File: Budynek PGR w Gwoździanach.jpg, PGR Gwoździany
File: Rybotycze PGR.jpg , PGR Rybotycze
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
See also
* Collectivization in Poland
*Folwark
''Folwark''; german: Vorwerk; uk, Фільварок; ''Filwarok''; be, Фальварак; ''Falwarak''; lt, Palivarkas is a Polish word for a primarily serfdom-based farm and agricultural enterprise (a type of ''latifundium''), often very ...
*Kolkhoz
A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...
and 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 ...
* Nationalization in Poland
*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 ...
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
Further reading
*W. J. Stankiewicz, ''Socio-Economic Changes in Post-War Poland'', Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 3 (Sep., 1956), pp. 387–40
JSTOR
* Ewelina Szpak,''Między osiedlem a zagrodą. Życie codzienne mieszkańców PGR-ów'' (Between the settlement and farmstead. Everyday life in state-owned farms), Warsaw 2005.
Agriculture in Poland
Agricultural labor
Collective farming
Economic history of Poland
Polish People's Republic