RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 396 ~ even more astounding when one compares them to the proportion—just 2.8%—that private plots constitute of all the farm land in the country. The prices that privately-grown vegetables fetch in Moscow central market make a mockery of the communist ideal of free food for all. According to a Reuter report from Moscow, dated December 28, 1984, tomatoes from Georgia were fetching 15 roubles a kilo on the Moscow market. Cauliflowers from central Asia were going for 12 roubles a piece. Muscovites complain about the high prices but it is a question of paying them or going without vegetables: While Muscovites complain at the swarthy ‘millionaries’ from the South whose big houses and flashy cars are legend, without them fruit and vegetables would be hard to find at all.3 All this goes to show that the communist state has failed to provide people with their basic needs of life, let alone provide them free of cost. People have to fall back on the private sector for elementary provision. The private sector continues to outstrip