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

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

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA<br />

169<br />

Consequently, the tying <strong>of</strong> people down <strong>to</strong> allotments retards<br />

the growth <strong>of</strong> the home market.<br />

Secondly, we can make use <strong>of</strong> Zemstvo statistics on<br />

consumption by farm labourers. Let us take from the Statistical<br />

Returns for Orel Gubernia the data on Karachev<br />

Uyezd (<strong>Vol</strong>. V, Pt. 2, 1892), which are based on information<br />

concerning 158 cases <strong>of</strong> agricultural wage-labour.*<br />

Converting the monthly ration in<strong>to</strong> one for a year, we get<br />

the following:<br />

Keep <strong>of</strong> a farm labourer Keep <strong>of</strong> a “peasant”<br />

in Orel Gubernia in Voronezh Gubernia<br />

having having<br />

minim. maxim. average one no<br />

horse horse<br />

Rye flour (poods) 15.0 24.0 21.6 18.5 17.3<br />

Cereals (poods)<br />

Millet (poods)<br />

4.5<br />

1.5<br />

9.0<br />

1.5<br />

5.25<br />

1.5<br />

2.9<br />

#4.8<br />

lbs. finewheat<br />

flour<br />

2.5<br />

4.9<br />

Pota<strong>to</strong>es (meras) 18.0 48.0 26.9 8.7 17.4<br />

Total in terms <strong>of</strong><br />

rye** 22.9 41.1 31.8 22.8 23.0<br />

Lard (pounds) 24.0 48.0 33.0 28.0 32.0<br />

Annual cost <strong>of</strong><br />

all food (rubles) — — 40.5 27.5 25.3<br />

Consequently, the standard <strong>of</strong> living <strong>of</strong> the one-horse<br />

and horseless peasants is not higher than that <strong>of</strong> farm<br />

labourers, and if anything rather approximates <strong>to</strong> the minimum<br />

standard <strong>of</strong> living <strong>of</strong> the latter.<br />

The general conclusion from our review <strong>of</strong> the data on<br />

the bot<strong>to</strong>m group <strong>of</strong> the peasantry is, accordingly, the following:<br />

both in its relation <strong>to</strong> the other groups, which are<br />

ousting the bot<strong>to</strong>m section <strong>of</strong> the peasantry from agriculture,<br />

in its scale <strong>of</strong> farming, which covers only part <strong>of</strong><br />

the expenditure on maintaining the family, in its source<br />

<strong>of</strong> livelihood (sale <strong>of</strong> labour-power), and, lastly, in its<br />

* The difference between the conditions in Orel and Voronezh<br />

gubernias is slight, and, as we shall see, the data given are <strong>of</strong> the<br />

usual kind. We do not take the data in the above-mentioned work<br />

<strong>of</strong> S. A. Korolenko (see the juxtaposition <strong>of</strong> those data in Mr. Maress’s<br />

article in The Influence <strong>of</strong> Harvests, etc., I, 11), for even the<br />

author himself admits that Messrs. the landowners from whom these<br />

data were obtained sometimes “were carried away”. . . .<br />

** Computed in the manner stated above.<br />

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