A comprehensive, original, and innovative analysis of the social, economic, and political factors affecting contemporary Russian reform, the book is organized around the central question of the role of the state and its effect on the course of Russian agrarian reform.

In the wake of the collapse of the USSR, contemporary conventional wisdom holds that the Russian state is "weak." Stephen Wegren feels that the traditional approach to the weak/strong state suffers from measurement and circular logic problems, believing that the Russian state, though weaker than in its Soviet past, is still relatively stronger than other actors. The state's strength allows it to intervene in the rural sector in ways that other power contenders cannot.

Wegren's research is based upon extensive field work, interviews, archival documents, and published and unpublished source material conducted over a six-year period, and he demonstrates the link between agrarian reform and the success of overall reform in Russia. This learned and often controversial volume will interest political scientists, policy makers, and scholars and students of contemporary Russia.