The Agrarian Reform as a Mode of Use in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS)/Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (1919–1939)

Bulgarian Historical Review, 52 (2024), No. 3-4, pp. 85-118
DOI:

Sia Nikiforova

Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 52 Shipchenski Prohod Blvd., build. 17, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria. ORCID ID Number: 0000-0003-4383-5801; WoS Researcher ID: KOD-0105-2024; E-mail: sianikiforova@gmail.com

Abstract: The present study traces the development of an important issue in the interwar history of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, namely the land issue and the reforms related to it. The author compares the policy of the governments in both countries regarding the so-called “agrarian reform” and reveals that no real reform was carried out. Based on the analytical historiography on the issue and fragmentary statistical and archival sources, the conclusion is made that an agrarian reform, which includes basic economic transformations, guaranteeing growth in the agricultural sector, such as the creation of profitable and competitive farms, or the imposition of technical and scientific innovations, did not actually take place. What the Yugoslav and Bulgarian authorities were doing was taking into account the main and leading political problem after the First World War – for the former, the creation of a new state, and for the latter, the exit from the severe postwar socio-economic crisis.

Keywords: agrarian reform, interwar period, Balkans, political and national question

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