A sample of 345 collective and state farms in Volgograd province, Russia, provides data to test how state orders (goszakazy) affected farm productivity, and whether the price regime discriminated against farms with high quality land. Did the price regime impede agricultural reform by causing resource misallocation or a mistaken association of profit maximization with cost maximization? It appears that the lack of the usual differentiation among regions and products created a strong, but artificial political solidarity among agricultural producers which may in part explain the reluctance of Gorbachev to challenge the agrarian status quo.