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

280
V. I. LENIN
in Three Volosts of Novgorod Uyezd, Novgorod, 1882). The
milk-feeding of calves, which is also a type of commercial
livestock farming, is, generally speaking, a fairly widespread
industry in the Novgorod and Tver gubernias and in other
places not far from the big cities (see Hired Labour, etc.,
published by the Department of Agriculture). “This industry,”
says Mr. Bychkov, “by its very nature, brings an income to
the already well-provided peasants possessing considerable
numbers of cows, since with one cow, and sometimes even
with two of poor yield, the milk-feeding of calves is unthinkable”
(loc. cit., 101).*
But the most outstanding index of the economic successes
of the peasant bourgeoisie in the area described is the hiring
of labourers by peasants. The local landowners feel that
they are being confronted by competitors, and in their
communications to the Department of Agriculture they sometimes
even attribute the shortage of workers to the fact
that these are snatched up by the well-to-do peasants (Hired
Labour, 490). The hiring of labourers by peasants is noted
in the Yaroslavl, Vladimir, St. Petersburg and Novgorod
gubernias (loc. cit., passim). A mass of such references is
also scattered throughout the Survey of Yaroslavl Gubernia.
This progress of the well-to-do minority, however, is
a heavy burden upon the mass of the poor peasants. In
Koprin Volost, Rybinsk Uyezd, Yaroslavl Gubernia, for
example, one finds the spread of cheese making—on the
initiative of “V. I. Blandov, the well-known founder of
cheese-making artels.”** “When the poorer peasants, with
only one cow each, deliver . . . their milk (to the cheese
* Let us note, by the way, that the variety of “industries” of
the local peasantry prompted Mr. Bychkov to distinguish two types
of industrialists, according to the amount of earnings. It appeared
that less than 100 rubles was earned by 3,251 persons (27.4% of the
population); their earnings totalled 102,000 rubles, or an average of
31 rubles per person. Over 100 rubles was obtained by 454 (3.8%
of the population): their earnings totalled 107,000 rubles, or an
average of 236 rubles per person The first group consisted mainly of
wage-workers of every kind, the second of traders, hay merchants,
timber dealers, etc.
** The “cheese-making artels” of Koprin Volost are mentioned in
the Directory of Factories and Works, and the Blandovs are the largest
firm in the cheese-making industry: in 1890 they owned 25 factories
in six gubernias.