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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
213
Let us deal somewhat with another, very curious, argument
of Mr. Kablukov. We have seen that he idealises
labour-service; but it is remarkable that when he, as a statistician,
describes real types of purely capitalist farms in Moscow
Gubernia, his description, in spite of himself, and in a
distorted way, is a reflection of the very facts that prove the
progressive nature of capitalism in Russian agriculture. We
beg the reader’s attention, and apologise in advance for our
rather lengthy quotations.
Besides the old types of farms employing hired labour,
there is to be found in Moscow Gubernia
“a new, recent, emergent type of farm that has totally broken
with all tradition and regards things simply, in the way people
regard every industry that is to serve as a source of income.
Agriculture in this case is not regarded as ... a lord’s hobby, as an
occupation anybody may engage in. . . . No, here the necessity is
recognised of having ... special knowledge.... The basis of calculation”
(as to the organisation of production) “is the same as in all other
forms of production” (Statistical Returns for Moscow Gubernia, Vol.
V, Pt. I, pp. 185-186).
Mr. Kablukov does not notice that this description of
the new type of farm which has only “recently emerged,”
in the 70s, proves precisely the progressive nature of capitalism
in agriculture. It was capitalism that first turned
agriculture from a “lord’s hobby” into ordinary industry, it
was capitalism that first compelled people “to regard things
simply,” “to break with tradition” and to equip themselves
with “special knowledge.” Before capitalism this was both
unnecessary and impossible, because the farms of the different
manors, village communities and peasant families were “selfsufficing,”
were not dependent on other farms, and no power
on earth could drag them out of their age-long stagnation.
Capitalism was the force which created (through the medium
of the market) the social accounting of the output of the
individual producers, and compelled them to reckon with the
demands of social development. It is this that constitutes
the progressive role of capitalism in agriculture in all European
countries.
Listen now to the way Mr. Kablukov describes our purely
capitalist farms: