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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
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is why there can be no doubt that the data for 1890 and 1894
greatly understate the actual facts; this is confirmed by the
opinion of experts, who considered that in the beginning
of the 1890s agricultural machinery and implements were
manufactured in Russia to a sum of about 10 million rubles
(Agriculture and Forestry, 359), and in 1895 to a sum of
nearly 20 million rubles (Vestnik Finansov, 1896, No. 51).
Let us quote somewhat more detailed data on the types
and quantity of agricultural machinery and implements manufactured
in Russia. It is considered that in 1876 there
were produced 25,835 implements; in 1877—29,590; in
1878—35,226; in 1879—47,892 agricultural machines and
implements. How far these figures are exceeded at the present
time may be seen from the following: in 1879 about
14,500 iron ploughs were manufactured, and in 1894—
75,500 (Vestnik Finansov, 1897, No. 21). “Whereas five years
ago the problem of the measures to be taken to bring
about the wider use of iron ploughs on peasant farms was one
awaiting solution, today it has solved itself. It is no longer a
rarity for a peasant to buy an iron plough; it has become a
common thing, and the number of iron ploughs now acquired
by peasants every year runs into thousands.”* The mass of
primitive agricultural implements employed in Russia
still leaves a wide field for the production and sale of iron
ploughs.** The progress made in the use of ploughs has even
raised the issue of the employment of electricity. According
to a report in the Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta [Commercial
and Industrial News] (1902, No. 6), at the Second Congress
of Electrical Engineers “considerable interest was
aroused by a paper read by V. A. Rzhevsky on ‘Electricity in
Agriculture.’” The lecturer illustrated by means of some
excellent drawings the tillage of fields in Germany with the aid
of electric ploughs, and, from the plan and estimates he had
combined output of 50,000 rubles, and what is more, the number of
“handicraft” establishments included such as employed 6 wageworkers
and had an output of over 8,000 rubles. (A Sketch of the
Condition of Handicraft Industry in Perm Gubernia, Perm, 1896.)
* Reports and Investigations of Handicraft Industry in Russia.
Published by Ministry of State Properties, Vol. I, St. Petersburg,
1892, p. 202. The production of ploughs by peasants is simultaneously
declining, being forced out by factory production.
** Agriculture and Forestry in Russia, p. 360.