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

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182<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

8) On the question <strong>of</strong> whether the differentiation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

peasantry is progressing, and if so at what rate, we have no<br />

precise statistics that can be compared with the data in the<br />

combined tables (§§I-VI). This is not surprising, for till<br />

now (as we have already remarked) no attempt whatever<br />

has been made <strong>to</strong> study even the statics <strong>of</strong> the differentiation<br />

<strong>of</strong> the peasantry systematically and <strong>to</strong> indicate the forms<br />

in which this process is taking place.* But all the general<br />

data on the economy <strong>of</strong> our rural districts indicate an<br />

uninterrupted and rapidly increasing differentiation: on the<br />

one hand, the “peasants” are abandoning and leasing out<br />

their land, the number <strong>of</strong> horseless peasants is growing,<br />

the “peasants” are fleeing <strong>to</strong> the <strong>to</strong>wns, etc.; on the other<br />

hand, the “progressive trends in peasant farming” are also<br />

taking their course, the “peasants” are buying land, improving<br />

their farms, introducing iron ploughs, developing<br />

grass cultivation, dairy farming, etc. We now know which<br />

“peasants” are taking part in these two diametrically<br />

opposite sides <strong>of</strong> the process.<br />

Furthermore, the development <strong>of</strong> the migration movement<br />

is giving a tremendous impetus <strong>to</strong> the differentiation<br />

<strong>of</strong> the peasantry, and especially <strong>of</strong> the agricultural peasantry.<br />

It is well known that the migration <strong>of</strong> peasants<br />

is mainly from the agricultural gubernias (migration from<br />

the industrial gubernias is quite negligible), and precisely<br />

from the densely populated central gubernias, where there<br />

is the greatest development <strong>of</strong> labour-service (which<br />

retards the differentiation <strong>of</strong> the peasantry). That is the first<br />

point. The second point is that it is mainly the peasants<br />

in medium circumstances who are leaving the areas <strong>of</strong> emi-<br />

has grown so rapidly in the post-Reform period along with the<br />

wholesale ruin <strong>of</strong> the peasantry. Mr. N. —on, who illustrates his theories<br />

about the home market with this very example <strong>of</strong> our textile industry,<br />

was <strong>to</strong>tally unable <strong>to</strong> explain the existence <strong>of</strong> this contradic<strong>to</strong>ry<br />

phenomenon.<br />

* The sole exception is I. Hourwich’s splendid work The Economics<br />

<strong>of</strong> the Russian Village, New York, 1892. Russ. trans. Moscow, 1896. One must marvel at<br />

the skill with which Mr. Hourwich processed the Zemstvo statistical<br />

returns, which furnish no combined tables <strong>of</strong> groups <strong>of</strong> peasants<br />

according <strong>to</strong> economic strength.

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