On the other hand, the utilisation of the land by the poor and land-hungry peasants has been levelled up, and they have profited by a share in the cattle and farming implements of the rich peasants, and as a result of the division of the great estates.
As regards the equalisation of land-holdings throughout the various rural districts, counties, and provinces, the matter is still in progress, and is far from being completed.
At the present time it is impossible to give a conclusive picture of the results of the agrarian revolution. Speaking generally, we may say that almost all the land owned by private individuals, either in very large estates or in those of a considerable size, has passed into the hands of the peasants who work their own farms.
The private estates have been put under cultivation. The Soviet Power reserved for soviet agriculture approximately 2,000,000 desyatinas. The peasants are also cultivating part of the municipal territories. Furthermore, the peasants have received all the church lands, all the monastery and nunnery lands, and part of the crown lands. All in all, the peasants have secured about 40,000,000 desyatinas of land that was privately owned before the revolution.
In addition to the reserves of the Soviet Power, and in addition to the territories of the sugar refineries, there still remain at the disposal of the Soviet State nearly all the areas that used to be State land, and also the nationalised forests that used to belong to private landowners.
In this way the Russian Communist Party has carried on its fight for socialism despite the unfavourable conditions that prevail as far as the land question is concerned. By far the greater part of the land actually held by the State is unsuitable for cultivation. Most of the land fit for cultivation has been allotted to the lesser peasants, to those who work their own farms.