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

174
V. I. LENIN
references were very fragmentary. No attempt was ever
made to study this phenomenon systematically, and that
is why we lack, to this day, adequate information about
this phenomenon notwithstanding the wealth of data provided
by the Zemstvo house-to-house censuses. Connected
with this is the fact that the majority of the writers
who have dealt with this problem regard the break-up
of the peasantry simply as the emergence of property
inequality, as simple “differentiation,” to use the favourite
term of the Narodniks in general and of Mr. Karyshev in
particular (see his book on Rentings and his articles in Russkoye
Bogatstvo). Undoubtedly, the emergence of property
inequality is the starting-point of the whole process, but the
process is not at all confined to property “differentiation.”
The old peasantry is not only “differentiating,” it is being
completely dissolved, it is ceasing to exist, it is being ousted
by absolutely new types of rural inhabitants—types that
are the basis of a society in which commodity economy and
capitalist production prevail. These types are the rural
bourgeoisie (chiefly petty bourgeoisie) and the rural proletariat—a
class of commodity producers in agriculture and
a class of agricultural wage-workers.
It is extremely instructive that the purely theoretical
analysis of the process of the formation of agricultural
capitalism points to the differentiation of the small producers
as an important factor in this process. We have in mind
one of the most interesting chapters in Vol. III of Capital,
namely Chapter 47, “Genesis of Capitalist Ground-Rent.”
As the starting-point of this genesis Marx takes labour-rent
(Arbeitsrente)*—“. . . where the direct producer, using
instruments of labour (plough, cattle, etc.) which actually
or legally belong to him, cultivates soil actually owned
by him during part of the week, and works during the
remaining days upon the estate of the feudal lord without
* In the Russian translation (p. 651 and foll.) this term is given
as “trudovaya renta” (“trudovaya” is the adjectival form of “trud”—
labour.—Ed.). We think that our translation (“otrabotochnaya renta”—
from “otrabotat,” to work off, to pay off by labour.—Ed.) is more
correct, for the Russian language contains the specific term “otrabotki”
(labour-service) which means precisely the work of the dependent
peasant for the landowner. 67