10 Reasons Kin’s Domains Benefit Russia (and the world)

by Vladimir Megre, from “The New Civilization”, book 8.1 in the Ringing Cedars of Russia series.

Anastasia USA note: Vladimir Megre wrote the following excerpt specifically about Russia, but the ideas can be applied to any country. The theories are applicable everywhere.

By a vote taken at the conference, a people’s movement was set up under the name Ringing Cedars of Russia, with the basic aim of supporting the idea of kin’s domains. It was truly a people’s movement, opposed to neither the government nor any political party. Rather, it aimed to reach out to all with the simple message: Let’s create.

Thus a people’s movement was born with a clear and distinct programme, easily comprehensible to and solidly supported by the public.

What benefit would accrue to the State of Russia by carrying out just one platform of this programme? Outwardly, it is a very simple platform, focusing on a single hectare of land, but envisaging the following wide ranging results:

• A significant improvement in the environmental situation;

• Restoration of soil fertility;

• A solution to the question of providing high quality produce for the country’s population;

• A significant (twofold or threefold) increase in wages across all sectors of the economy without risk of inflation;

• An immediate improvement in the demographic situation and in the general health of the population, including its rejuvenation;

• A solution to the question of the nation’s defence preparedness;

• The termination of capital outflow along with, by contrast, a capital inflow into Russia; the return of her intellectual resources;

• A significant reduction in (over the next few years) and eventual extirpation of: bribery, corruption, gangsterism and terrorism;

• A coming together of neighbouring countries  along with those of the former Warsaw Pact (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and the three Baltic states) into a single powerful union;

• Cessation of the arms race and close cooperation among Russia, the USA and Eastern Moslem states.

Kin’s Domain in Russia

Photo from Vladimir Megre’s website vmegre.com

These points have been worked out not just by me, but also by a number of students in their graduating essays — e.g., the essay by the budding jurist Tatiana Borodina.  They are also talked about in scholarly publications (e.g., by Professor Viktor Yakovlevich Medikov, a three term deputy of the legislative assembly who holds a doctorate in economics). There are a number of privately published brochures on the topic, written by professional researchers as well as ordinary people.

I shall attempt to jot down a few words of explanation in justification of some of these points.

So, let us suppose that our country has decided to implement the programme proposed by Anastasia:

Every willing family is offered free of charge one hectare of land for lifetime use with the right of inheritance for the purposes of establishing on it their own kin’s domain. The produce grown on the domain, as well as the domain itself, is not subject to any form of taxation.

The adoption of this programme will lead to the following results:

• A significant improvement in the environmental situation.

Practice has shown that people who have received land for a kin’s domain first of all set about planting wild growing trees, at an average of up to 200 trees per family, along with an average of 2,000 shrubs, hedges and berry bushes and 50 fruit bearing trees.

Even using the most conservative estimates, researchers predict that the adoption of such a programme on a national level, if correctly implemented, will lead, right in its earliest stages, to about ten million Russian families setting up their own kin’s domains.

This means that even in the first year or two following the adoption of the programme, and without any additional subsidies, two billion wild growing trees will have been planted, 20 billion shrubs and approximately 500 million fruit bearing trees. And that is just the beginning.

• Restoration of soil fertility.

As can be seen from practice, the first thing people do when they are granted land, not on a short term lease but for their lifetime use, is to put their efforts into soil restoration. Not only that, but they are doing this not just by the application of organic fertilisers, but also by a more natural method, namely, the sowing of soil building crops during the early years.

• A solution to the question of providing high quality produce for the country’s population.

You may remember the ‘struggle for the harvest’  back in Soviet times — how school children, students and industrial employees were transported out to collective and state owned farms to help bring in the harvest.

I myself took part in these large scale operations, weeding fields and gathering onions at a suburban state owned farm.

However, there was still no abundance of high quality produce in the country. Today’s older generations, of course, remember how the potatoes sold in stores would be half rotted, not to mention the most undesirable looking vegetables.

Then came the dacha movement. They began to allot people 600 square metres of land. And a miracle happened. Everyone is aware of the statistics. Ordinary people — all by themselves, without any support from government ministries or agencies — have provided 80% of the vegetables produced in Russia. (Unfortunately, all sorts of complications are being introduced these days, including higher travel fares, taxes on land plots, increased electricity rates.) And all this on just 600 square metres, where it is impossible to create any kind of economically viable enterprise or to plant tall trees which enrich the soil, or to put in water ponds and so forth. And all this carried out by people without sufficient knowledge or experience, working just on weekends and holidays.

A hectare of land will allow the setting up of a more economically viable enterprise. With the right kind of organisation, there will be a thirtyfold decrease in the workload per square metre. Not all at once, mind you, but I do emphasise: it has to be set up properly That given, both existing practice and theoretical calculations confirm that implementing the proposed programme will fully guarantee the country a sufficient food supply for all its citizens bar none.

Now a word about quality. It goes without saying that someone growing agricultural produce to be used by his own family will not add any poisonous chemicals or chemical fertilisers to the soil. He will not grow any mutant produce. All this crap is being imported into our country and bought up by the public for no other reason than insufficient production here at home. Once a sufficient quantity level is reached, quality becomes the number one concern. I hope I’ve made myself clear?

• A significant (twofold or threefold) increase in wages across all sectors of the economy without risk of inflation and a reduction of prices within the country on all forms of merchandise, leading to a reduction in social tension.

Someone may wonder what possible link there could be between the implementation of the ‘Kin’s domains’ programme and a wage increase — let’s say, for a salesman, a trolleybus driver, a nurse or a teacher. But there is! And a direct causal link at that.

Think about it. Most enterprises today are in private hands. People we call oligarchs enjoy fabulous profits — but at whose expense? Basically, at the expense of minimum wage earners. And what’s the point of increasing their wages, let’s say, from five thousand to twenty thousand roubles a month, when there are still people queuing up just to get a job? There’s simply nowhere for them to go.

It’s an entirely different situation with a family whose work on their own domain earns them an average of ten thousand roubles a month (which has been proved entirely feasible in practice) with a minimal cost of living. No utility bills or daily commuting expenses, or the cost of buying meals at city cafes. To attract domain dwellers to work in a factory or other private enterprise, one would have to offer them a salary at least one and a half or two times the income they would earn from working on the domain, and cover travel and meal expenses besides.

Today an oligarch who has privatised a factory or oil drilling company can afford to live in a castle in London (that really happens) and earn up to a million dollars a month, while the workers slaving away to provide that income for him receive less than a tenth of one percent of what he makes.

This scenario can be played out ad infinitum. Inevitably it leads to revolution, stripping the property owner of his enterprises and the overthrow of the government permitting such inequities. The only way to prevent such a result from occurring is to reach an equitable sharing arrangement with the workers. Oligarchs will not come to this point voluntarily but, under pressure of circumstances, will give in.

We mentioned the relationship between a domain dweller and the owner of an industrial enterprise. But those left living in city flats will also see their wages rise, to keep them at their jobs. They too, after all, are given a choice: stay working and living in urban conditions, or start building themselves a whole new way of life in the country

And one more question on this point: Why will this not lead to inflation or price rises?

Inflation is always the outcome of certain concrete procedures, specially engineered. Price rises are simply a by-product. The cause is always Man’s estrangement from a natural way of life. It is an easy matter to increase prices on fuel and foodstuffs when people don’t have any of either to call their own, meaning that they are completely dependent on external suppliers. But try raising apple prices for someone who has his own orchard. Absurd! And what about fuel? But even here there’s a limit. Today’s fuel prices are so high that it is actually more profitable to till a couple of hectares of land using horses — which, by the way, supply a first class fertiliser for the soil.

• An immediate improvement in the demographic situation and in the general health of the population, including its rejuvenation.

It is no secret that the current demographics in our country are catastrophic. And even this word isn’t strong enough to describe it fully. If a country’s peacetime population decreases by almost a million souls annually, that’s monstrous! The leaders of such a country, I should think, would want to hide their identity from the public, as well as from their descendants. Discussions on the need to change the current situation amount to nothing more than pathetic babble. They don’t change anything. Not even increasing financial support for birthing mothers, as necessary as that may be, will lead to any substantial improvement.

The history of many millennia shows that women cease giving birth when they see no prospective future for their children. It is necessary first to determine clearly and precisely the future development of society as a whole, as well as of each family making up that society.

The Anastasia Foundation in Vladimir conducted a survey of families planning on setting up their own kin’s domains. Of the more than two thousand polled, 1,995 responded that they would be having children. Some wanted three or even more. Those who for health reasons were unable to have children of their own were planning to adopt them from orphanages. How to explain this phenomenon? It is simply that a Man who has built a marvellous living oasis is aware that he is building something lasting, and wants his children to enjoy life, too.

As to rejuvenation and revitalisation of health, let us turn once more to practice. Look at how much livelier and younger your grandfathers and grandmothers behave once they get out to their dachas in the springtime. And it goes without saying that a pregnant woman who eats only environmentally clean produce, drinks clean water and breathes clean air cannot help but bear healthy children — significantly healthier than today’s examples.

• A solution to the question of the nation’s defence preparedness. A significant reduction in weapons and, over the next few years, the eventual complete extirpation of bribery, corruption, gangsterism and terrorism.

The military preparedness and morale of our armed forces today, including the nation’s law enforcement officers, has slipped below the zero mark and is heading deep into the minus side. It is no secret how challenging it is for local conscription offices to call up young recruits to military service. Refusal of military obligations is no longer considered shameful among today’s youth — on the contrary, it has become a mark of bravery. Those whose families are slightly better off attempt to buy their way out of serving; those not so well off try to ‘cut out’ any way they can, even to the point of self mutilation.

So it turns out that, by hook or by crook, the army drags in conscripts from the poorest segments of the population. Such an army is in no position to defend anyone or anything against a major enemy. Not only that, but it is potentially dangerous to the very country it is supposed to serve.

Let’s take a close look at just whom the soldiers of the Russian army are called upon to protect. The Motherland, comes the standard response. But today the concept of Motherland has been seriously eroded, and it is a challenge to grasp hold of just what is one’s Motherland. It wasn’t that long ago that Russian officers and soldiers swore an oath of allegiance to the USSR, which was also considered their Motherland. Then all at once the borders changed and whole parts of the territory they were defending turned out to be ‘foreign soil’. The troops deployed in these parts were suddenly treated as invaders. They were left to defend the people on the part of the territory that was still known as Russia. But what kind of people were they really protecting? Oligarchs and bribe taking government officials? Their own families? But if a soldier or an officer came from a poor family, who was he supposed to protect them from?

For the past ten years now, government propaganda has proclaimed that we are building “a civilised, democratic state on the Western model”. But just think: how could today’s Russian soldiers do battle against the forces of NATO or the USA if they have already been brainwashed into thinking that their enemy is civilised and developed, which must mean that ‘we’, by contrast, are ‘civilised’ and ‘undeveloped’? Quite absurd. Is this some sort of psychobabble, or a deliberately invented tactic? An all professional army has been touted as a panacea for getting out of this manufactured dead end situation, but that is even more absurd. A professional army, as is known, is made up of mercenaries who take up arms for money and shoot at whoever they are told is the target. They carry out the orders of whoever pays the most.

History is full of examples of governments afraid to bring their armies of mercenaries home. That’s how it was in Ancient Rome, and a similar danger exists in the USA. It is already happening in parts of Russia as well.

A professional army must be kept busy in continual fighting, preferably not on the territory of the nation it is supposed to be serving. When an army returns to its home country, it will inevitably be in demand by forces opposed to the existing authority, or it will disintegrate into a large number of splinter groups, some of which may even be transformed into criminal gangs. For the most part, there is no such thing as unemployed armed mercenaries. If they are not given work, they will find it on their own, and in their chosen profession. Besides, an army consisting of people serving only for money can be very easily bought off by a higher bidder.

Just imagine a foreign military base located, say, in Georgia, Turkmenistan or Ukraine, whose soldiers are paid three thousand dollars a month, while ours get only five hundred a month. In fact, you don’t need to imagine this. There are already concrete examples right here in Russia. Just look at how many highly qualified and professionally trained officers of the former KGB are now working as security guards for commercial organisations, including foreign banks.

So, what’s the solution? There is just one — one and only one. We must make sure that our Russian soldiers, officers and generals have something left to protect.

• Every Russian army or law enforcement officer, upon receiving the rank of lieutenant, is to be awarded not only a little star on his epaulette, but at the same time the right to receive a hectare of land on which to set up his kin’s domain.

The land grants shouldn’t be for ‘back lot’ waste lands, but for elite lands specially allocated by the government for settlement purposes. An officer should be able to choose his own particular hectare within these territories. And, when home on leave, he should be free to plant, either alone or together with his parents, a new garden, or dig a pond, or designate a spot on which to build a house.

And if he is frequently reposted to various parts of the country or even abroad, during the time he is billeted in officers’ quarters, barracks or a field tent, every officer of the Russian Army should be able to rest secure in the knowledge that back there, in a spot of his own choosing, the garden of his little Motherland — his own garden — is flourishing in the springtime. And the girl who has fallen in love with him will know from the little star on his epaulettes that her beloved has a future, has a Motherland, and a family nest for their future children.

And even if, for the time being, she has to share with her beloved in the challenging conditions of an officer’s life, all the same, at least once a year they will visit their little Motherland and share their dreams and plans for the future domain. They will decide where the pond is to be dug and where the house is to be built.

And even if they are obliged to spend their month’s leave on their own land in a tent, still they will be able to experience an incomparable sense of joy at beholding the marvellous future that lies ahead for the generations of their family to come.

And even if the little trees of their future garden are still young and the green hedge they have planted around their domain is scarcely noticeable, these are still there, and they will grow and flourish, waiting for them, their creators.

• If an officer’s wife becomes pregnant, within three months’ time, the State should build on the designated spot a modest home according to the plans selected by the parents-to-be, with all the amenities afforded by modern technology.

And the wife of a Russian officer will be able to spend the remaining months of her pregnancy in her own little house. Perhaps her home will be shared by her parents, or perhaps she will be alone there, keeping in touch with friendly neighbours. But, most importantly, she will be surrounded and filled by the positive emotions she so badly needs. After all, she will be completely surrounded by the space of her little Motherland, belonging jointly to her and her beloved.

And she won’t go off to have her baby overseas or even in one of those incubators we are accustomed to calling, for some reason, maternity homes. The officer’s wife will have her baby in her own domain, as many women are already doing. Possibly it will be under a doctor’s supervision, but it will be at home, in familiar, favourable and sympathetic surroundings — not in some maternity chair which has heard the moans and cries of hundreds of birthing mothers.

• The child of a Russian officer should be born only in his own family domain.

Even if at the moment of birth the young lieutenant is somewhere far away, he will hear — he will most certainly hear — his child’s first joyful cry. And he will let no foe encroach upon his grand Motherland. He, this young lieutenant, a Russian officer, will not let a foe get past him, since at the heart of his vast Motherland is his own little Motherland — one he feels is very dear and close to him, one where his beloved walks in a flourishing garden, holding his wee son by the hand as he takes his own first baby steps in life.

Society! Our society! The society comprising our nation is already today capable of seeing to it that a young mother — the wife of a Russian officer — need not worry about how to get food for her baby She should be provided for. Maybe not in the style the oligarchs’ wives are accustomed to, nor has she any use for the shallow fad of owning a supposedly expensive car. She will have far more than that — love and a future. Her main achievement is the restoration of her Motherland. This is her principal work, her principal task in life.

And society should pay her a salary equal to that of her husband. That’s not much, of course, in return for her grand co-creation, but such a step will at least be an initial goodwill gesture on the part of society and the State.

Such a possibility already exists right now. Only one shouldn’t confuse things by bringing in higher level economic considerations.

Currently the oil pipeline is showering Russia with a rain of American dollars. And why is not a single drop of this rain falling on any Russian officer, his wife or child, or his little Motherland?

Who thought up such arrangements, concealing themselves behind that supposed panacea for all ills — democracy?

Is it ‘democratic’ when poorly paid soldiers or officers of the Russian Army are obliged to defend wealthy oligarchs, their fancy detached houses along the Rublevskoe Highway and their numerous counterparts in other regions of the country? That’s not democracy, that’s drivelocracy.

And if such drivel doesn’t change, we shan’t have any defence or protection at all. There will be no protection for the average citizen, nor even for the president, let alone the petty and major oligarchs.

The extermination of this drivel will spell an end to corruption, drug trafficking, and the notorious bribe taking from drivers on the part of traffic cops.

Now tell me: why should a copper have to stand in the street and breathe into his lungs all the roadway dust and the exhaust fumes of all the expensive and not so expensive cars passing by? As though they were the cat’s pajamas and he were nothing but a nincompoop. He stands there watching out for their safety, for which he is paid a mere pittance. Indeed, if he didn’t take bribes from these cars’ owners, he would be ridiculed by his relatives who would think it utterly abnormal; his wife would tear into him and his children would turn away from a father who couldn’t even afford to buy them a pair of last season’s jeans.

And he is not at all terrified of the police’s anti-corruption squads. So what if he’s sacked from his job? That’s no great loss. It’s not a job that will guarantee a living for his family in return for honest labour. It simply means he has to look for another. But what kind of job? What kind of job can he find where he can maintain his integrity and still provide for his family?

And so he stands there in the dust and exhaust fumes and takes his bribes. And for this, society hardly condemns him, but pays him. So what? — we’re all becoming like this, society thinks. Now that’s terrifying! The fact that we’re getting used to it! We cease dreaming about other possible scenarios. We get accustomed to seeing the crowds of prostitutes, homeless children and street thugs. We get accustomed to the stage shows we call elections. Or is someone, in fact, accustoming us to these?

After all, up until recently the most terrifying thing for an inhabitant of a Russian village was social disdain on the part of his fellow villagers, observing: She’s a slut! He hasn’t kept his property up!

And so, it’s time to bring back those days. The time will most certainly come when the most pleasant thing for a Russian citizen to hear will be society’s approval in the form of: He’s a good man! He has sensitive and properly behaved children!

He has a splendid domain! Then there won’t be any more crime, corruption or drug trafficking. It will surely come, that time.

On a bench in a shady garden sits a greying, elderly man, tenderly stroking the chestnut coloured hair of his three year old granddaughter, her head nuzzled against his chest, while his eleven year old grandson takes the general’s great coat hanging on the back of the bench and tries it on. Two large general’s stars adorn the epaulettes of the greatcoat, which once featured two small lieutenant’s stars.

But that’s not the most important thing, the grey headed general thinks, looking at his grandchildren. The most important thing is that he created and saved for his grandchildren this garden, this pond and the whole marvellous Space in his kin’s domain, his little Motherland in the heart of Russia. He has saved Russia! And She is flourishing! His Motherland! A fresh cool breeze wafts the fragrance of Her gardens around the whole world. And interplanetary winds announce the flourishing of the Earth to other worlds. And the stars in the heavens burn with just a touch of envy, and dream of meeting visitors from the Earth, the wise and bright sons and daughters of God.

It will come to pass! But in the meantime… Do you hear, lieutenants, how the heart of the Russian Land is beating, sounding the alarm?! How it is begging for you to take her, little by little, to yourself and plant gardens? She promises to return to each of you your Spaces of Paradise and give you the gift of eternity!

Do you hear? You must hear!

• The termination of capital outflow and a new inflow of capital into Russia; the return of her intellectual resources.

I can theoretically prove that this will happen with the adoption of Anastasia’s programme in full. This has also been shown theoretically by famous scholarly researchers, as well as by students working on their graduating essays.

There are arguments on both sides here. Only practice can offer incontrovertible proof. And that it has done.

People of the Russian diaspora have been flocking from near and far to communities still under construction — communities which as yet do not have a solid legal footing. I know, for example, just in one community near the city of Vladimir, of a teacher from Turkmenistan and a young couple from America. A similar trend can be observed in many other communities now being built on the territory of Russia and Ukraine. People who can’t wait for a law on land grants are buying up land, endeavouring to work within existing legislation. They are buying back their Motherland. It is the duty of society and the State to refund their money, otherwise there will be a curse hanging over the head of anyone who has seen fit to take money from someone for starting to settle on the land where he was born.

In any event, people are coming back, even if it is just one or two at a time for now. You can judge for yourselves what will happen under a favourable coincidence of circumstances — i.e., the adoption of a law granting every willing family a plot of land on which to set up a kin’s domain.