Russia's 'Far Eastern Hectare': Free Land for Citizens Who Use It

Lidia Kelly

Since 2016, Russia has offered its citizens one hectare of land in the Far East, about 2.5 acres, completely free. Recipients can use the plot for any lawful purpose: a house, a farm, a small business or a holiday cabin. If they have developed it after five years, they can take it into full ownership or lease it long term. More than 150,000 people have received land so far, according to the government agency that runs the scheme.

The programme is officially called the "Far Eastern hectare". When it was announced, many headlines described it as free land for anyone willing to farm, but farming is only one of the permitted uses, and the conditions are more detailed than the slogans suggested. Here is how it works, why the government created it, what people have done with their plots and how much difference it has made.

What the law offers

The scheme rests on Federal Law No. 119-FZ, signed on 1 May 2016. Its key points are straightforward:

Size: up to one hectare per person, free of charge.
Use: any lawful activity, including housing, agriculture, forestry, tourism or business. There is no requirement to farm.
Five-year period: the land is first given for free use. During that time it cannot be sold, rented out or given away.
After five years: if the plot has been put to use, the holder can register it as property or take a lease.
Who can own it: only Russian citizens. Foreign residents can join in limited circumstances but cannot take ownership on the same terms.

Alexander Galushka, then Russia's minister for the development of the Far East, presented the law as an opportunity for young people in particular. As reported by GlobalPost at the time, he said: "It will allow Russians, especially the youth, to discover in the Far East a real chance for self-realization."

Why Russia wants people in the Far East

The Far Eastern Federal District is enormous. Since two more regions, Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai, were added in November 2018, it covers about 6.95 million square kilometres, roughly 40% of Russia. Yet only about 8 million people lived there at the 2021 census, around 5.6% of the country's population. When the scheme was launched, before the district was enlarged, the figure usually quoted was about 6.2 million.

The population has been shrinking for decades. Within today's borders, the district counted about 10.4 million people at the last Soviet census in 1989, so it has lost close to a quarter of its residents since then. When the Soviet Union collapsed, subsidies, military bases and guaranteed jobs disappeared, and many families moved west to Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities with milder climates and better pay. The fall continued even in recent years, with a decline of 4.7% between 2010 and 2021.

For Moscow this is not only an economic worry. The region borders China, Mongolia and North Korea, faces Japan and the United States across the sea, and holds vast reserves of timber, fish, gas and minerals. A thinly populated frontier is harder to develop and, in the government's view, harder to hold.

The idea of offering land to settlers is not new. In the early twentieth century, under Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, the Russian Empire encouraged millions of peasants to resettle in Siberia and the Far East with promises of land and travel support. The modern hectare is a much smaller incentive in a very different country, but the goal is similar.

How the programme was rolled out

The scheme started cautiously. From June 2016 it ran in a handful of pilot districts and was open only to people living there. Residents of the wider Far East could apply next, and from 1 February 2017 every Russian citizen could take part, wherever they lived. At launch the eligible regions were Kamchatka, Primorye, Khabarovsk, Amur, Magadan and Sakhalin, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), and the Jewish and Chukotka autonomous districts.

Applicants pick a plot from available state and municipal land, and the local authorities then approve or refuse the request. In August 2021 the government extended the programme to Russia's Arctic zone.

The response at first was strong. By December 2017, more than 107,000 people had applied and about 40,000 had already received land.

What people have done with their land

According to the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, the state agency that manages the scheme, 151,103 people have received plots in the Far East, covering about 98,000 hectares in total. Including the Arctic zone, 160,466 people have taken land under the programme.

The agency's breakdown of how the plots are used shows that the scheme has become more about homes than farms:

Housing: 53% of plots
Agriculture: 28%
Business: 12%
Recreation and tourism: 7%

Most recipients chose land in the more accessible southern regions. Primorsky Krai, around Vladivostok, leads with about 40,000 recipients, followed by Yakutia with about 28,400 and Sakhalin with about 20,800. Around 35,000 Far Eastern plots have so far been registered as property or under a lease, the final step after the five-year period.

Small rural homesteads like the one in our header photo are what many applicants have in mind, although the wild taiga and tundra that cover most of the region are a very different proposition from a plot near an existing village.

The obstacles: distance, climate and paperwork

A free hectare does not come with free roads, electricity or water. Much of the available land is far from towns, and building on permafrost, in long winters, is costly. Experts were sceptical from the start. Richard Connolly, then co-director of the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Birmingham, described the plan as an attempt to deal with the fact that it is "extremely expensive to get people to move there".

Critics and applicants quoted in Russian and foreign media have raised other problems:

Remote or unsuitable plots. Attractive land near cities was quickly taken, leaving forest, swamp or hillside farther away.
Infrastructure. The government promised basic services for clusters of plots, but connections have often been slow.
Bureaucracy. Applicants have reported refusals, overlapping claims and delays in registering land.
Who benefits. Many recipients already lived in the region, so the scheme has partly rewarded existing residents rather than attracting newcomers.

The authorities have responded with extra support for some groups, such as subsidised mortgages in the Far East, but the basic challenge of persuading people to move thousands of kilometres east remains.

Has it worked?

As a land programme, the Far Eastern hectare has been a modest success. Well over 150,000 people have received land, tens of thousands have built houses or started farms and small businesses, and the scheme has outlived several ministers and reorganisations.

As a population policy, the results are thinner. The region lost residents between 2010 and 2021, during the first years of the programme, and many recipients were locals rather than new arrivals. Free land can help those already inclined to stay, but on its own it is unlikely to reverse decades of migration driven by jobs, wages, climate and distance.

For anyone outside Russia who first saw the story as "free land for anyone", the main points to remember are that only Russian citizens can own the plots, the land must be used, and the real cost lies in everything needed to make a remote hectare liveable.

Sources: Wikipedia: Law on the Far Eastern Hectare; The Moscow Times, 1 February 2017: Russian government starts free land giveaway in country's Far East; Far East and Arctic Development Corporation: Over 150,000 people received land under the Hectare programme; Wikipedia: Far Eastern Federal District. Quotes from Alexander Galushka and Richard Connolly as reported by GlobalPost (May 2016); story first shared via True Activist. Header photo credit: Lidia Kelly.

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