EN
The article is a synthesis of considerations contained in a book titled 'Panstwowe gospodarstwa rolne w procesie przemian systemowych w Polsce' (State-owned Farms in the Process of Systemic Transformation in Poland) which was published by the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Science (IRWiR PAN). The aim of the work was to present facts, analyses and the broadest possible knowledge about transformations in the state-owned farms. It represents an attempt at explaining why restructuring processes in the Polish state-owned farms were so radical and at finding out whether their privatisation could have been accomplished in a different and more successful way.