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

AGRARIAN PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY311the story about a stranger who was present for the firsttime at a discussion between ancient philosophers but remainedsilent all the time. One of the philosophers said tothe stranger: “If you are wise, you are behaving foolishly;if you are a fool, you are behaving wisely.”4. IS THE REPUDIATION OF ABSOLUTE RENT CONNECTEDWITH THE PROGRAMME OF MUNICIPALISATION?Puffed up though Maslov may be with the importance ofhis remarkable discoveries in the sphere of political economictheory, he, evidently, has some doubts whether anysuch connection exists. At any rate, in the article quotedabove (Obrazovaniye, No. 2, p. 120) he denies that thereis any connection between municipalisation and the “fact”of diminishing returns. That is rather odd: the “law ofdiminishing returns” is connected with the repudiation ofabsolute rent, is connected also with the fight against Narodism,but it is not connected with Maslov’s agrarian programme!The fallacy of this opinion that there is no connectionbetween general agrarian theory and Maslov’s Russianagrarian programme can, however, be easily proved by directmeans.The repudiation of absolute rent is the repudiation ofthe economic significance of private land ownership undercapitalism. Whoever claims that only differential rentexists, inevitably arrives at the conclusion that it makesnot the slightest difference to the conditions of capitalistfarming and of capitalist development whether the landbelongs to the state or to private persons. In both cases,from the standpoint of the theory which repudiates absoluterent, only differential rent exists. Clearly, such a theorymust lead to the repudiation of the significance of nationalisationas a measure which accelerates the developmentof capitalism, clears the path for it, etc. For such a viewof nationalisation follows from the recognition of two formsof rent: the capitalist form, i.e., the form which cannotbe eliminated under capitalism even on nationalised land(differential rent), and the non-capitalist form connectedwith monopoly, a form which capitalism does not need andwhich hinders the full development of capitalism (absoluterent).