The purpose of the work is to systematize the signs of land reclamation basics, the stages of information gathering, the industrial base development and the implementation of large-scale works on construction and operation of land reclamation objects, and to identify the true reasons for shutdown of the development of reclamation fund and to determine the measures for their recording and prevention in future. The signs of four stages of land reclamation development in the region are proved in the article: the 17th–19th centuries, the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the period from 1917 to 1965, and the period from 1965 to 1990. Each of the periods is characterized by its own processes and achievements, the results of which were the development of the science of land reclamation and the creation of the reclamation fund that made it possible to eliminate a food shortage in Volga region. Nevertheless, the current state of melioration is characterized by a deep decline. Since 1990, the irrigation potential has decreased by one third, almost no new construction is performed. However, it would be incorrect to consider that the negative processes of the perestroika period were responsible for the failures of land reclamation. It is found that the reason lies in the previous mistakes in design, construction and operation of modern technically advanced irrigation systems that were implemented without taking into account the solution of socio-economic problems based on previous patriarchal forms of the agricultural system. To overcome the stagnation crisis, a new investment paradigm is proposed. The proposed paradigm consists in reorienting the reclamation industry from the budgetary subsidized finance system to its own reproducing schemes by creating financial holdings on the basis of meliorative and agricultural associations within large irrigation systems.
Key words: stages of reclamation development, soil-restoration processes, economic self-reliance of the reclamative industry, crisis of the current state, ways of recovering from crisis, legal aspects.
