alexander aksenov is the appointed manager. aksenov ( translated ): we have 3,200 head of cattle including the calves. ( aksenov speaking russian ) translator: there are 1,500 milk cows. in total we have 4,500 hectares of land; 200 we plow under, and the rest we use for grass and hay. ( cattle mooing ) ( aksenov continuing speaking russian ) narrator: during the soviet era, this farm, just as most of the other collective enterprises, took care of its own employees. it provided housing and arranged services such as shops and a school-- practically a village unto itself. today, the farm houses over a thousand people and employs some 250 workers. people still live in these houses. although privatization means some employees now own these homes, they still live and work in a collective environment. so these collective farms persist. but why? one reason is a lack of the market infrastructures that facilitate independent farming; another is russia's sheer geographic size relave to its population. people in isolated areas weependent o