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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
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non-black-earth belt) the area under flax has changed in
recent years as follows; 1893—756,600 dess.; 1894—816,500
dess.; 1895—901,800 dess.; 1896—952,100 dess., and 1897—
967,500 dess. For the whole of European Russia (50 gubernias)
the figure for 1896 was 1,617,000 dess. under flax and
for 1897—1,669,000 dess. (Vestnik Finansov, ibid., and 1898,
No. 7), as against 1,399,000 dess. at the beginning of the
1890s (Productive Forces, I, 36). Similarly, general opinions
expressed in publications also testify to the growth of
commercial flax growing. Thus, regarding the first two
decades after the Reform, the Historico-Statistical Survey
states that “the region of flax cultivation for industrial
purposes has been enlarged by several gubernias”
(loc. cit., 71), which is due particularly to the extension of
the railways. Concerning the Yuryev Uyezd, Vladimir
Gubernia, Mr. V. Prugavin wrote at the beginning of the
eighties: “The cultivation of flax . . . has become very widespread
here during the past 10 to 15 years.” “Some largefamily
households sell flax to the extent of 300 to 500 rubles
and more per annum. . . . They buy” (flax seed) “in Rostov. . . .
The peasants in these parts are very careful in selecting seed”
(The Village Community, Handicraft Industries and Agriculture
of Yuryev Uyezd, Vladimir Gubernia, Moscow,
1884, pp. 86-89). The Zemstvo Statistical Returns for
Tver Gubernia (Vol. XIII, Pt. 2) notes that “the most important
spring grain crops, barley and oats, are yielding place
to potatoes and flax” (p. 151); in some uyezds flax occupies
from 3 to w of the area under spring crops, for example, in
Zubtsov, Kashin and other uyezds, “in which flax growing
tion were very inexact; that is why we have preferred to take
approximate estimates based on comparisons of the most varied sources
made by experts. The amount of flax produced fluctuates considerably
year by year. For that reason Mr. N. —on, for example, who
set out to draw the boldest conclusions about the “diminution” of flax
production and “the reduction of the area under flax” (Sketches, p. 236
and foll.) from figures for some six years, slipped into the most
curious errors (see P. B. Struve’s examination of them in Critical
Remarks, p. 233 and foll.). Let us add to what has been said in the text
that according to the data cited by Mr. N. —on, the maximum area
under flax in the 1880s was 1,372,000 dess. and the weight of gathered
fibre 19,245,000 poods, whereas in 1896-1897 the area was 1,617,000-
1,669,000 dess., and the weight of gathered fibre 31,713,000-30,139,000
poods.