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

AGRARIAN PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY287Thus, the peasants have clearly and emphatically declaredagainst the old village commune in favour of free associationsand individual land tenure. That this was thereal voice of the peasantry as a whole there can be no doubt,since there is not a hint at the village commune even in theLand Bill of the Trudovik Group (of the 104). Yet the villagecommune is an association for the ownership of allotmentland!Stolypin is forcibly abolishing the village commune forthe benefit of a handful of rich persons. The peasantry wantsto abolish it and replace it by free associations and tenure by“individuals” on the nationalised allotment land. But Maslovand Co., in the name of bourgeois progress, are challengingthe fundamental requirement of this very progress anddefending medieval landownership. God save us from thatsort of “Marxism”!8. THE MISTAKE MADE BY M. SHANINAND OTHER ADVOCATES OF DIVISIONM. Shanin, approaching the question in his pamphlet*from a somewhat different angle, involuntarily providedanother argument for the nationalisation which he detestsso much. By citing the example of Ireland, by his analysisof the conditions of bourgeois reform in the domain ofagriculture, M. Shanin has proved only one thing, viz.,that the principles of private ownership of the land areincompatible with public or state ownership of the land(but that incompatibility has to be proved also by a generaltheoretical analysis, of which Shanin did not even think).If he has proved anything else it is that private ownershipmust be recognised wherever the state carries out any reformsin the sphere of agriculture developing on capitalistlines. But all these arguments of Shanin’s are wide of themark: of course, under the conditions of bourgeois reformonly private ownership of land is conceivable; of course,the preservation of private ownership of the bulk of theland in the United Kingdom left no other way open for part* M. Shanin, Municipalisation or Division for Private Property,Vilna, 1907.