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

410V. I. LENINgroup is of the opinion that the greatest injustice in theworld is the private ownership of the land” (1318).In the First Duma, Deputy Chizhevsky from Poltavasaid: “As an ardent advocate of the autonomy idea, as anardent advocate of Ukrainian autonomy in particular, Ishould very much like the agrarian question to be settledby my people, by individual autonomous bodies, in thatautonomous system of our state that I regard as the ideal”(14th session, May 24, 1906, p. 618). At the same time, thisUkrainian autonomist deems state distributable lands tobe absolutely essential, and he clarifies an issue which our“municipalisers” have muddled up. “We must firmly andpositively establish the principle,” said Chizhevsky, “thatthe state distributable lands must be managed exclusivelyby local self-governing Zemstvo or autonomous bodies whenthese are set up. It may be asked: What sense is there inthe term ‘state distributable lands’ if in every particularcase they will be managed by local government bodies?I think there is very much sense.... First of all ... part ofthe state lands should be at the disposal of the central government... our state colonisation lands.... Secondly, thesense of establishing a state stock of distributable land, andthe sense of calling it such, is this: although the local bodieswill be free to dispose of that land in their respective areas,they will be able to do so only within certain limits” (620).This petty-bourgeois autonomist understands the significanceof state power in a society centralised by economicdevelopment far better than our Menshevik Social-Democrats.By the way, in dealing with Chizhevsky’s speech, wecannot leave unmentioned his criticism of “norms”. “Labournorm is an empty sound,” he says bluntly, pointing outthe diversity of agricultural conditions, and on the samegrounds he also rejects the “subsistence” norm. “I thinkland should be allotted to the peasants not according to anorm, but according to the amount of land available....The peasants should be given all that can be given in theparticular locality,”—for example, in Poltava Gubernia“land should be taken away from all the landowners, whoshould be left with an average of 50 dessiatins each at themost” (621). Is it surprising that the Cadets chatter aboutnorms in order to conceal their plans regarding the actual