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

218
V. I. LENIN
aspects of agriculture—i.e., qualities that were not and could
not be possessed by the Oblomovs 89 of the feudal or bondagesuffering
countryside. The various changes in the technique
of agriculture are inseparably connected with one another
and inevitably lead to the transformation of its economy.
For example, let us suppose you introduce the cultivation
of flax and clover—that will immediately necessitate numerous
other changes, and if these are not made, the business
will not run smoothly. The ploughing implements will have
to be changed and iron ploughs substituted for wooden ones,
iron harrows for wooden ones, and this in turn will require a
different type of horse, a different type of labourer, a different
system of farming as regards the hire of labourers, etc.”
(154-155).
The change in the technique of agriculture thus proved to
be inseparably bound up with the elimination of labourservice
by capitalism. Particularly interesting in this regard
is the gradualness with which this elimination takes place:
the system of farming, as hitherto, combines labour-service
and capitalism, but the main weight gradually shifts
from the former to the latter. Here is a description of how
Engelhardt’s reorganised farm operated:
Nowadays I have much work to do, because I have
changed the whole system of farming. A considerable part
of the work is done by regular labourers and day labourers.
The work is extremely varied. I clear brushwood for wheat
growing, uproot birches for flax growing. I have rented
meadow land by the Dnieper, and have sown clover, lots
of rye and much flax. I need an enormous number of hands.
To secure them, you have to make arrangements in good
time, for when the busy season starts everybody will be occupied
either at home or on other farms. This recruitment of
labour is done by advancing money or grain for work to be
done” (pp. 116-117).
Labour-service and bondage remained, consequently, even
on a “properly” conducted farm; but, firstly, they now occupied
a subordinate position as compared with free hire, and,
secondly, the very labour-service underwent a change; it
was mainly the second type of labour-service which remained,
that implying the labour not of peasant farmers, but of
regular labourers and agricultural day labourers.