It turns out that my readers have a dizzying array of skills, experiences and knowledge. I reached out to one of my readers who I suspected had first-hand knowledge of eastern Europe and asked him if he could explain how all of these Ukrainian vloggers have enough property to "homestead".
His response:
"I was over there in the 1980's, well before the socialist states collapsed. From the Khrushchev era on, laws allowed most citizens throughout the East Bloc to have (control, not ownership) small 1 acre to 3 acre individual parcels outside of cities to grow food on. This was allowed to alleviate food shortages, which were terrible. Mostly due to sorry logistics throughout the Bloc, which allowed most food to rot before it made it to market. They grew enough food, but they could not deliver it to consumers (prior to reforms). Their grocery stores were obscene. Cigarettes were their only quality product!
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| Even today, roads in rural Ukraine are "rough". Source |
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| That explains the presence of all of the tiny, dug ponds scattered across the rural landscape. A pond is lower tech than a drilled well and a submersible pump. Source of image |
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| Very large regions of Ukraine have annual precipitation of 20" or less |
The straight red lines are the babies who would have been born during the collapse of the USSR and in the chaotic decade afterward.
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