The idea for this book originated in a project that I began as Visiting Fellow at All Souls College in Oxford in 1996. The warmth of that fellowship and, particularly, the encouragement of Charles Feinstein and Paul David were invaluable in the early stages of my work.

My understanding of contemporary agrarian reform emerged in the course of my work in Moscow from 1993 to 1995 as U.S. Treasury economic advisor to the Russian Ministry of Finance. A colleague whose kindness and knowledge particularly assisted my work was Eugenia Serova. Among those to whom I am also deeply endebted are Brian Foster, Christian Foster, Tatiana Gusarova, Renata Ianbykh, William Liefert, Vic Miller, Allan Mustard, Aleksandr Nikonov, and David Sedick.

My study of Russian agrarian history over the past twenty-five years gained especially from the works and encouragement of Paul Gregory, and from discussions with Leonid Borodkin, Harold Carter, Knick Harley, Ivan Koval'chenko, William Liefert, Leonid Milov, Boris Mironov, Alan Olmstead, and Judith Pallot. I am thankful for the opportunities I was given for this study by the Davis Center (formerly Russian Research Center) at Harvard University; the International Research and Exchanges Board; the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research; the National Science Foundation; the State University of New York, College at Plattsburgh; and Moscow State University. For assistance and training in economics as a Visiting Scholar at the California Institute of Technology, I am grateful for the generosity of the economists and political scientists of the Social Science and Humanities Division, and particularly Kim Border, Rodney Kiewet, John Ledyard, Peter Ordeshook, and Charles Plott.