Abstract

As literally every East European nation struggles to reformits agricultural sector, land reform in its many forms figures preeminently in strategic thinking on the problem. Estonia's historic program, instituted during the first republican period, was a highly successful reform from many perspectives. With political as well as economic goals, the reform had an important social dimension as well in that it reinvigorated entire rural regions and established a vital family farming system. The land reform's achievements owe as much to the social and human infrastructure created in Estonia as it did to changes in land tenure, land assembly, and land use. This may be one of its most important lessons for those attempting to craft a new agricultural structure for this and other nations in the region