“An orgy of licence?” Democracy and property redistribution in Poland and the Baltics in their international context, 1918–1926

Abstract

The article argues that property redistribution was a major tool of democratization and nationalization in Poland and the Baltics. It provided governments with a means to give peasants a stake in the new democratic states, thus empower the new titular nations and at the same time marginalize former elites, who became national minorities. The most significant acts of property redistribution were the land reforms passed between 1919 and 1925, which achieved the status of founding charters of the new states. Activists of the disenfranchised minorities conceptualized minority protection as the “Magna Carta” of the international order, which should contain the principle of national self-determination and thus safeguard private property, the protection of which was not clearly regulated by international law. By examining the contingencies of the aftermath of the war in East Central Europe as well as discussions about changing conceptions of property ownership in both East Central and Western Europe, the article shows that land reform was meant to counter Bolshevism, but, at the same time, created the impression abroad that the new states themselves displayed revolutionary tendencies and did not respect private property – an image that became a significant argument of interwar territorial revisionists.

Keywords:

• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Poland
• democracy
• agrarian reform
• property

Notes

1. Session of the Maapäev. Minutes Nr. 62, 22 November 1918, Eesti Riigiarhiiv (=ERA) 78/1/113: 4–5.

2. Copies of the Land Commission protocols, 1 May 1919, ERA/15/2/370: 5–8.

3. Session of the Maapäev. Minutes Nr. 62, 22 November 1918, ERA 78/1/113: 5.

4. Minutes of the Constitutional Assembly Land Committee meeting Nr. 2, 1 May 1919, ERA 15/2/370: 5–8; Draft for the regulation of the assessment of land and inventory proposed by the Estonian People's Party. In Asutava Kogu protokollide lisad 1919: 13–15.

5. Copies of the Land Commission protocols, 1 May 1919, ERA/15/2/370: 5–8.

6. Memorandum of Johan Jans memo to the Land Law Committee, 22 July 1919, ERA 15/2/422: 27–28.

7. Copies of the Land Commission protocols, 30 May 1919, ERA/15/2/370: 30.

8. Copies of the Land Commission protocols, 11 July 1919, ERA/15/2/370: 58–60.

9. The parcellation of foreign manors, 7 October 1921, ERA/31/1/934: 34–35.

10. Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung für Lettland, 1 December 1920, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes (=PA), R 265781: 145.

11. “Muhsu orientazijas.” In Liepājas Avīze, 19 July 1921; Jauno saimneezibu protesteschanas un semes sadalischanas leetà.” In Liepājas Avīze, 16 July 1921. See also the reactions of the German legation to the articles: “Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung für Lettland,” 20 July, 1921, PA, R 265781: 271.

12. “Memorandum,” 22 January 1921, PA, R 265797: 76–79.

13. Deutsche Gesandtschaft für Estland, 27 August 1924, PA, R 266372: 63–64.

14. “Abschrift. G. A.,” 27 November 1924, PA, R 266372: 70.

15. Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung in Riga. 2 October 1920, PA, R 265781: 39–40.

16. “Sanierung und Agrarreform in Polen,” 15 January 1926. The National Archives (=TNA), GFM 33/2341: E369239–E369244.

17. Max Sering to the Foreign Office, 5 March 1921, PA, R 265781: 228.

18. “Rent Question Is as Ancient as Man. Lithuania, Oldest Republic in Europe, Has Solved Land Problem,” in New York Sun, 11 May 1919, cited from: Misiūnas (2008, 249).

19. “Reforms in East Central Europe.” The Economist, 6 August, 1921.

20. “The New Baltic States.” The Times, 20 July, 1920.

21. Estates of Danish subjects. 1920, ERA/31/1/917: 12–13.

22. Rede des Seimabgeordneten Dr. Purickis, 29 April, 1921, PA, R 84981, unnumbered.

23. Rede des Seimabgeordneten Dr. Purickis, 29 April, 1921, PA, R 84981, unnumbered.

24. Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung für Litauen, 10 May, 1921, PA, R 84981, unnumbered.

25. E. v. Hertzberg. Leyden. 31 March 1921, PA, R 265781: 256.

26. A. Heyking, Forwards advance copy of his pamphlet, 5 January 1921, LNA, R1656/10503, doc. no. 18446, 78.

27. “Vai bez atlīdzības?,” Liepājas Avīze, 13 November 1923.

28. Hermann Keyserling, “The Baltic Problem,” 25 May 1919, TNA, FO 608/185/1: 304-306, here 305.

29. Copies of the Land Commission protocols, 26 June 1919. ERA/15/2/370: 47–48.

30. “Vokiečiai apie mūsų žemės reformą,” Lietuvos žinios, 10 November 1923.

31. Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung für Litauen, 10 May 1921, PA, R 84981, unnumbered.

32. Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung in Litauen, 16 September 1920, PA-RA, R 84981, unnumbered; Deutsche Diplomatische Vertretung in Litauen, 15 July 1920, PA, R 84981, unnumbered.

33. “Aus einem Rechtsstaat,” 29 April 1924, PA, R 265387, unnumbered.

34. “Žеmės reformos jstatymas,” Vyriausybės žinios, 3 February 1922.

35. O. Finkelšteinas, “Keršto aktas?,” Mūsų garsas, 7 April 1924.

36. Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany (28 June 1919). Art. 92.

37. Minorities Treaty between the Principal Allied and Associated Powers and Poland, signed at Versailles (28 June 1919), Art. 3.

38. A. Heyking, “Adresse à la Societé des Nations.” 1920, LNA, R585/8382, doc. no. 8382, unnumbered.

39. “Latvian Republic,” Daily Telegraph, 24 November 1920.

40. Baron A. Heyking, “The Minorities’ Rights and the Baltic States,” 21 May 1921, LNA, R1656/10503, doc. no. 12988: 1.

41. A. Heyking, “Forwards Advance Copy:” 27, 29–30.

42. Heyking, “Adresse à la Societé des Nations.”

43. Heyking, “Adresse à la Societé des Nations.”

44. Heyking, “Forwards Advance Copy:” 11, 27.

45. A. Heyking, “Expose les raisons pour lesquelles il estime que la memorandum sur le sujet doit etre pris en considération par la S.te des Nations.” 1920, LNA, R585/8382, doc. no. 9375, unnumbered.

46. Heyking, “Adresse à la Societé des Nations.”

47. Heyking, “Forwards Advance Copy:” 45, 50–51.

48. Baron A. Heyking, “The Minorities’ Rights.” 21 May 1921, LNA, R1656/10503, doc. no. 12988: 2.

49. Heyking. “Forwards Advance Copy:” 46.

50. Cf. e.g. Valters’ and Pusta's speeches at the third assembly in 1922: Records of the Third Assembly, C VI. Second Meeting, 11 September 1922: 11–12; Third Meeting, 12 September 1922: 13–16. As opposed to Poland, where minority protection assurances became a condition sine qua non for its constitution in 1919, the Baltic States issued unilateral declarations obliging them to minority protection – Lithuania in 1922, Estonia and Latvia in 1923 (Hilpold 2013, 93).

51. A. Heyking. “Gives an Account of the Conditions with regards to the Expropriation of Land in Latvia and Esthonia.” 1922, LNA, R1656/10503, doc. no. 22820: 4–6.

52. Dr. W. Kiparis, “Copie, Riga,” 10 February 1921; Staatsrath W. Kiparis. “Caveat,” 30 January 1921, LNA, R1656/10503, doc. no. 11225, unnumbered.

53. A. Petrow-Iwanow. “Agrarian Reform in Latvia.” 1925, LNA, R1667/15782, doc. no. 44487, unnumbered.

54. “Pirmutiniojo Ūkininkų Sąjungos visos Lietuvos suvažiavimo įvykusio Kaune 1919 m. gruodžio 28 ir 29 d.,” Ūkininkas, 1 (1920).

55. “Estländischer Juristentag,” Revaler Bote, 30 April 1924.

56. W. v. Fircks. “10 Jahre seit dem Inkrafttreten des Agrarreformgesetzes.” Rigasche Rundschau, 2 October 1930.

57. “Kas yra tautininkas?” Lietuvos žinios, 29 July 1927.

58. Petras Klimas. “Quelques traits caracteristiques de l'economie Lithuanienne.” 7 December 1937, LCVA, f. 383, ap. 4, b. 94: 7.

59. “Mūsų Rytojus,” 8 June 1928, quoted in: “Dopolnitel’noe prošenie. Žitelej dereven’ Pošervinty i Norvidy, Vil’komirskago uezda, graždan Litovskoj respubliki,” 12 June 1928, LCVA, f. 383, ap. 7, b. 837, l. 35.

60. “Unsere Nachbarn. 11. Estland,” Der Tag, 9 August 1933.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was generously funded by the British Academy [SG143278].