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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
spoken. It is clear how incomplete is that picture of differentiation
which gives no information about the main commercial
product of local agriculture.*
VI. ZEMSTVO STATISTICS FOR VORONEZH GUBERNIA
The returns for Voronezh Gubernia are distinguished for
their exceptionally complete information and abundance of
classifications. In addition to the usual classification according
to allotment, we have for several uyezds a classification
according to draught animals, to persons working (working
strength of family), to industries (not engaged in industries;
engaged in industries: a—agricultural, b—mixed and
c—commercial and industrial), to farm labourers (farms with
members employed as farm labourers;—with no farm labourers
and with no members employed as such;—households
employing farm labourers). The last classification is given
for the largest number of uyezds, and at first glance one might
think that it is the most suitable for studying the differentiation
of the peasantry. Actually, however, this is not the
case: the group of farms providing farm labourers does not by
any means embrace the whole of the rural proletariat, for it
does not include farms providing day labourers, unskilled
labourers, factory workers, builders’ labourers, navvies,
domestic servants, etc. Farm labourers constitute only a part
of the wage-workers provided by the “peasantry.” The group
of farms that employ farm labourers is also very incomplete,
for it does not include farms that hire day labourers. The neutral
group (which neither provides nor employs farm labourers)
lumps together in each uyezd tens of thousands of
* The compiler of the returns for Orel Uyezd states (Table No. 57)
that the well-to-do peasants obtain nearly twice as much manure per
head of cattle as do the poor (391 poods per head where there are
7.4 animals per household, as against 208 poods per head where there
are 2.8 animals per household. And this conclusion was reached by
classifying according to allotment, which obscures the real depth
of differentiation). This is due to the fact that the poor are compelled
to use straw and dung as fuel, to sell it, etc. Consequently, only the
peasant bourgeoisie secure the “normal” quantity of manure (400
poods) per head of cattle. In this connection, too, Mr. V. V. might
argue (as he does about the decline in horse possession) about “the
restoration of the normal proportion” between the number of animals
and the quantity of manure.
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