Accounting for useability it becomes quite different quickly. Most people would take 40 hectars of prime black soil over 5 square kilometres of unuseable swamp.
Also just because Russia is thinly populated doesn’t mean all the good land isn’t already taken (of course it is). The promise of good land to settle on for the survivng soldiers is as old as humans invading other places.
Accounting for useability it becomes quite different quickly. Most people would take 40 hectars of prime black soil over 5 square kilometres of unuseable swamp.
Also just because Russia is thinly populated doesn’t mean all the good land isn’t already taken (of course it is). The promise of good land to settle on for the survivng soldiers is as old as humans invading other places.