Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 13 - From Marx to Mao

AGRARIAN PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY231Mr. Kaufman, who is a Cadet, and, consequently, is very cautiouswhen dealing with landlord estates, calculates thatland with over 25 per cent of forest might go to cover theshortage of land, and he thus obtains an area of 101,700,000dessiatins for 44 gubernias. For 47 gubernias I have estimateda land area of approximately 101,000,000 dessiatins,i.e., 67,000,000 out of the 70,000,000 dessiatins of the feudallatifundia, and 34,000,000 dessiatins owned by the stateand by various institutions. Assuming that all landed estatesof over 100 dessiatins are to be expropriated, theselands will be increased by another nine or ten million dessiatins.*3. THE CADET WRITERS OBSCURE THE NATURE OF THE STRUGGLEThe data given here on the role of the large landlord estatesin the struggle for land in Russia must be amplifiedin one respect: A characteristic feature of the agrarian programmesof our bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie is the factthat in them the question as to which class is the most powerfulopponent of the peasantry, and which holdings formthe bulk of the expropriable lands are obscured by argumentsabout “norms”. They (both the Cadets and the Trudoviks)talk mainly about how much land the peasantsneed according to this or that “norm”, instead of dealingwith the more concrete and vital question: how much landis available for expropriation? The first day of presentingthe question obscures the class struggle, conceals the essence* The alienation limit of 500 dessiatins, which I have taken inthe text, is purely hypothetical. If this limit is taken as 100 dessiatins,which is also purely hypothetical, the picture of the changewill be as follows:NowThenHouseholds Total area of Households Total area of Dess. per(millions) land (million (millions) land (million householddessiatins)dessiatins)(a) 10.5 75 (a) — —(b) 1.0 15 (b) 11.5 217 18.8(c) 1.4 50 (c) 1.53 63 41.1(d) 0.13 90 (d) — — —13.03 230 13.03 280 21.4+ 50The main conclusions about the character and essence of thechange are identical in either case.