Agriculture has played a key role throughout the communist world and has become a central issue of Marxist-Leninist theory. By the late 1970s, however, it was apparent that the doctrinaire approaches adopted were in need of thorough and pragmatic revision if farming was to flourish in these basically agrarian countries. This process of change is still with us today. This book contains a comparative essay on how the Soviet experience has shaped and sometimes hindered development, and essays on aspects of agriculture in China, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Cuba. The policies of these countries are compared and assessed to provide a full account of agricultural development under socialism.