The purpose of the article is to carry out an economic and historical review of agrarian reforms, starting with the abolition of serfdom and to current date, assess conformity of the mechanisms of land reform with the level and nature of the productive forces’ development, and determine socio-economic consequences of neglecting this requirements for balanced rural development. Research methods. The theoretical basis for the study was formed according to basic provisions of political economy. Dialectical method has been used for discovery of nature and consequences of the contradictions between elements of agrarian relations and the productive forces’ development; historical approach has been applied in the process of retrospective review of the implementation of agrarian reforms and institutional transformations aimed at regulating land relations and related spheres of life of rural society in various socio-political formations; analysis and synthesis has been used for assessing compliance of land legislation with trends that manifest themselves through economic patterns, as well as in the formulation of conclusions to the article. Research results. The retrospective of development of land relations and mechanisms of realization of agrarian policy from the abolition of serfdom and to the present have been covered. Socio-economic, demographic, and migration consequences of the destruction of communal land use have been described. The preconditions and means of carrying out the policy of “military communism” and introduction of the new economic policy have been considered. The state of land relations and productive forces to the continuous collectivization, as well as in the period of establishment of the collective farm system, has been investigated. The reasons for exhausting the potential of administrative-command methods of management of the agrarian sector have been highlighted. The socio-economic results of the transition period to the market economy have been estimated. The consequences of the moratorium on the market turnover of agricultural land have been analyzed. The economic regularity of the concentration of land resources has been proved. The conformity of land relations to the level and nature of the productive forces’ development has been generalized. The implications of introduction of the land market in terms of imperfect state organizational and economic mechanism aimed at preventing excessive concentration of agricultural land “in one's hands” and the lack of proper antimonopoly regulation in this area have been projected. Elements of scientific novelty. The retrospective political and economic review of land relations in Ukraine has been applied regarding their compliance to the level and nature of the productive forces’ development of agrarian production. Practical significance. The research results can be used in the process of developing an organizational and economic mechanism for introduction of the agricultural land market. Tabl.: 1. Refs.: 18