Modernising Agrarian Societies: The Interwar Global East through the Lens of Polish and ILO Agrarian Experts

This article analyses the ILO’s administrative practice on agricultural issues in the interwar period. On the surface, the ILO did not succeed in assuming a prominent position in the agricultural question. However, the article goes beyond this failure by focussing on the newly founded states of East Central Europe. It interprets the work of the tripartite actors and the experts from the region and works out how these actors shared a common conception of developed and underdeveloped countries with the Western internationalists and how they tried to overcome their weak position through statism and social engineering (e.g. land reforms).