Mom and I were given a plot of land that we have never seen. I
am told that it is covered with rocks, the type that an
enterprising fellow nearby is already exploiting and selling to
construction companies for road building. I am not holding any
high hopes or interest right now to plant a crop but it feels
strange and empowering at the same time to own an ancestral
piece of property that had belonged to my family for generations
but was taken by force after World War II. Grandpa would be
proud! In 1921, peasants were given 4 hectares of land. When
communists came to power in 1945, under pressure from Moscow, a
new agrarian reform was passed meant to disband large farms and
to gather votes for the Communist Party. Hundreds of thousands
of farmers received small plots of land to grow crops on and
feed their families. Once entrenched, the communist agricultural
vision changed. Their leaders were convinced that small
properties were not valuable and condemned to non-modernized
operations. At the time, people had