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

252V. I. LENINwas the opinion expressed in 1845 by such authoritativeobservers of nature as Academicians Beer and Helmersen.At that time the population of Taurida Gubernia, a halfof what it is now, produced 1,800,000 chetverts of grainof all kinds.... Now, after a lapse of 60 years, the populationhas doubled, and in 1903, it produced 17,600,000 chetverts,i.e., nearly ten times as much” (p. 24).That is true not only of Taurida Gubernia, but of a numberof other gubernias in the southern and eastern borderlandsof European Russia. The southern steppes, and alsothe gubernias on the left bank of the Volga, which in thesixties and seventies lagged behind the central black-earthgubernias in the output of grain, outstripped those provincesin the eighties (The Development of Capitalism, p. 186).*Between 1863 and 1897 the population of the whole ofEuropean Russia increased by 53 per cent—48 per centin the case of the rural and 97 per cent in the case of theurban population—whereas in Novorossia, the Lower Volga,and eastern gubernias, the population increased during thesame period by 92 per cent—87 per cent increase in the ruralpopulation and 134 per cent increase in the urban population(ibid., p. 446).**“We have no doubt,” Mr. Mertvago continues, “thatthe present bureaucratic estimate of the economic importanceof our land reserves is not less mistaken than thatof Beer and Helmersen concerning Taurida Gubernia in1845” (ibid.).That is correct. But Mr. Mertvago fails to see the sourceof Beer’s mistakes, and of the mistakes of all bureaucraticestimates. The source of those mistakes is that while takinginto consideration the given level of technique and culture,no allowance is made for the advance of this level.Beer and Helmersen did not foresee the technical changesthat became possible after the fall of serfdom. And therecannot be the least doubt now that a tremendous increasein the productive forces, a tremendous rise in the technicaland cultural level will inevitably follow the break-up ofthe feudal latifundia in European Russia.* See present edition, Vol. 3, p. 257.—Ed.** See present edition, Vol. 3, p. 563-65.—Ed.