Certificate of Land Use in Perpetuity

a state document issued in the USSR to kolkhozes (agricultural artels) certifying their right to use in perpetuity the land allotted to them.

The form of the state certificate is uniform for the entire Soviet Union. The procedure for issuing a certificate to kolkhozes has been laid down in the “Instructions Concerning the Procedure for Drawing up and Issuing to Agricultural Artels State Certificates of Land Use in Perpetuity’’ (approved by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on July 7, 1935). The management of the entire work involved in issuing state certificates has been assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR.

The state certificate is drawn up in duplicate; one copy is given to the board of the kolkhoz, and the other is kept by the executive committee of the raion council of workers’ deputies, where a special registry of state certificates is kept. The state certificate lists only the lands that are given to the kolkhoz for use in perpetuity, defines the general dimensions and boundaries of the kolkhoz land tract, and sets forth the plan for its use. The stability of the kolkhoz’s use of the land is underlined by the form of the state certificate, which provides for supplementary entries only in cases of boundary-adjusting additions to the kolkhoz tract. If the kolkhoz land is reduced, a new state certificate is issued. Attaching the land to kolkhozes in perpetuity has great political significance, for it contributes to the consolidation of the kolkhoz system, promotes efficient use of the land, and safeguards kolkhoz land use.