Very large folio format measuring 15" x 21" when closed. The hard cover is made of thick cardboard boards wrapped in black cloth. The cover features the early version of the USSR State Emblem with six scrolls for the number of republics comprising the Union at the time, embossed in gold. The title, in Belorussian language, is also embossed in gold.

Inside, the document consists of the following, page by page, with all the text in Belorussian:

1. The title page.

2. The statement of the act of the land grant specifying the area of land granted and a description of its bo

Very large folio format measuring 15" x 21" when closed. The hard cover is made of thick cardboard boards wrapped in black cloth. The cover features the early version of the USSR State Emblem with six scrolls for the number of republics comprising the Union at the time, embossed in gold. The title, in Belorussian language, is also embossed in gold.

Inside, the document consists of the following, page by page, with all the text in Belorussian:

1. The title page.

2. The statement of the act of the land grant specifying the area of land granted and a description of its borders, as per the plan provided on the next page. The area is 726.39 hectares (about 1,795 acres or 2.8 sq. miles). The land is granted to the collective farm named after Dimitrov (presumably, thе Bulgarian revolutionary who was called "the Bulgarian Lenin"; it was rather popular to give Soviet places and organizations his name as an honor).

3. The plan of the land with coordinates, dated, sealed and hand-signed at the bottom of the page.

4. Excerpt from the text of the decree issued by the Second Congress of Collective Farmers and approved by the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of VKP(b) on 17 February 1935, the legal basis for this land grant.

5. This page, and on through page 7, is segmented to record any additional plots of land added to the original grant. The filled in portion specifies 44.34 hectares (about 110 acres, or 0.17 sq. miles) of land, added in 1937.

8. The bottom of this page has a brown wax seal over two ends of a length of red silk cord which sews together the pages of the document, proof of its integrity.

In very good condition. The cloth of the hard cover shows moderate wear: It looks like the inside of the cover used to be decorated by some material (usually, silk) which was removed at some point from both the front and back boards of the cover. The cloth of the cover shows multiple small tears along the edges as well as moderate staining. However, all this wear is made less intrusive to the eye due to the very large size of the folio, and is not too detractive.

The title page shows moderate wear, mostly towards the bottom of the page. From page 3 and on to the end of the document, the wear is minimal, mostly just mild foxing.

According to our research, the land granted to the Dimitrov collective farm in 1936-37 is now part of Kadino, defined as "агрогородок" ("agritown", to coin a term, or in other words, a center of agricultural production). It is located in the Mogilev District of the Mogilev Region in the east of Belorussia, or Belarus as they call their country now.

Please note that the pen in our last photo is for size reference.
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