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

AGRARIAN PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY369fantasy. It is an instructive historical example. And theRussian peasant will not follow in the footsteps of Pugachovand Stenka Razin 134 with the cry ‘saryn na kichku!’ 135[Don’t be too sure of that, Count!] He will follow the onlytrue road, the road that was taken by all the civilised nations,the road taken by his neighbours in Western Europe,and, lastly, the road taken by our Polish brothers, by theWest-Russian peasants, who have already realised howdisastrous is the commune and homestead strip system ofownership, and in some places have already begun to introducethe khutor system” (1296). Count Bobrinsky goeson to say; and rightly, that “this road was indicated in1861, when the peasants were freed from serf dependence”.He advises the government not to grudge “tens of millions”for the purpose of “creating a well-to-do class of peasantproprietors”.He declares: “This, gentlemen, in generaloutline, is our agrarian programme. It is not a programmeof election and propaganda promises. It is not a programmefor breaking up the existing social and juridical norms[it is a programme for forcibly getting rid of millions ofpeasants]; it is not a programme of dangerous fantasies,it is a quite practicable programme [that is still open toquestion] and one that has been well-tried [what is trueis true]. And it is high time to abandon dreams about somesort of economic exceptionalism of the Russian nation....But how are we to explain the fact that quite impracticableBills, like that of the Trudovik Group and that of the Partyof People’s Freedom, have been introduced in a seriouslegislative assembly? No parliament in the world hasever heard of all the land being taken over by the state,or of the land being taken from Paul and given to Peter....The appearance of these Bills is the result of bewilderment”(a fine explanation!).... “And so, Russian peasants, you haveto choose between two roads: one road is broad and lookseasy—that is the road of usurpation and compulsory alienation,for which calls have been made here. That road isattractive at first, it runs downhill, but it ends in a precipice[for the landlords?], and spells ruin to the peasantryand the entire state. The other road is narrow and thorny,and runs uphill, but it leads to the summits of truth, right,and lasting prosperity” (1299).