Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 3 - From Marx to Mao

96
V. I. LENIN
household returns on peasant farming will be unsatisfactory
so long as peasant “industries” are not classified according to
their economic types, so long as among the “industrialists”
employers are not separated from wage-workers. This is the
minimum number of economic types without discriminating
between which economic statistics cannot be regarded as
satisfactory. A more detailed classification is, of course,
desirable; for example; proprietors employing wage-workers—proprietors
not employing wage-workers—traders,
buyers-up, shopkeepers, etc., artisans, meaning industrialists
who work for customers, etc.
Coming back to our table, let us observe that after all we
had some right to consider “industries” as being the sale of
labour-power, for it is usually wage-workers who predominate
among peasant “industrialists.” If it were possible to single
the wage-workers out of the latter, we would, of course,
obtain an incomparably smaller percentage of “industrialists”
in the top groups.
As to the data regarding wage-workers, we must note here
the absolutely mistaken character of Mr. Kharizomenov’s
opinion that the “short-term hire [of workers] for reaping,
mowing and day labouring, which is too widespread a phenomenon,
cannot serve as a characteristic criterion of the
strength or weakness of a farm” (p. 46 of “Introduction” to
the Combined Returns). Theoretical considerations, the
example of Western Europe, and the facts of Russia (dealt
with below) compel us, on the contrary, to regard the hiring
of day labourers as a very characteristic feature of the rural
bourgeoisie.
Lastly, as regards rented land, the data show, here too, the
same concentration of it in the hands of the peasant bourgeoisie.
Let us note that the combined tables of the Saratov statisticians
do not show the number of peasants who rent land
and lease it out, but only the total land rented and leased
out*; we have, therefore, to determine the amount of land
rented and leased per existing, and not per renting
household.
* The total amount of arable leased out in the uyezd is 61,639
dess., i.e., about 6, of the aggregate allotment arable (377,305 dess.).