Law of Spikelets
The Law of Spikelets or Law of Three Spikelets (Russian: Закон о трёх колосках, Закон о пяти колосках, Закон семь-восемь) was a decree in the Soviet Union to protect state property of kolkhozes (Soviet collective farms)—especially the grain they produced—from theft, largely by desperate peasants during the Soviet famine of 1932–33. The decree was also known as the "Seven Eighths Law" (Закон 'семь восьмых', Zakon "sem' vos'mykh"), because the date in Russian is filled into forms as 7/8/1932 (7 August 1932).