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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
299
we are interested solely in the agricultural processing of
oil-bearing plants. “The owners of the hempseed oil presses,”
we read in the Historico-Statistical Survey (Vol. II), “belong
to the well-to-do members of the peasantry”; they attach
particular value to vegetable-oil production because it
enables them to obtain excellent feed for their cattle (oilcake).
Mr. Prugavin (loc. cit.), noting the “extensive development
of the production of linseed oil” in the Yuryev Uyezd,
Vladimir Gubernia, states that the peasants derive “no
little advantage” from it (pp. 65-66), that crop and stock
raising is conducted on a far higher level by peasants who
own oil presses than by the bulk of the peasantry and that
some of the oil millers also resort to the hire of rural
workers (loc. cit., tables, pp. 26-27 and 146-147). The Perm
handicraft census for 1894-95 also showed that crop
raising is conducted on a much higher level by handicraft
oil millers than by the bulk of the peasants (larger areas
under crops, far more animals, better harvests, etc.), and
that this improvement in cultivation is accompanied by
the hiring of rural workers.* In the post-Reform period in
Voronezh Gubernia, there has been a particular development
of the commercial cultivation of sunflower seed, which
is crushed for oil in local presses. The area under sunflowers
in Russia in the 70s was estimated at about 80,000 dess.
(Historico-Statistical Survey, I), and in the 80s at about
136,000 dess., of which q belonged to peasants. “Since
then, however, judging by certain data, the area under
this plant has considerably increased, in some places by
100 per cent and even more” (Productive Forces, I, 37).
“In the village of Alexeyevka alone” (Biryuch Uyezd,
Voronezh Gubernia), we read in the Historico-Statistical
dissatisfaction among our agrarians (e.g., Mr. S. Korolenko, loc. cit.)
and our Narodniks (e.g., Mr. N. —on’s Sketches, pp. 241-242). We do
not share their views. The big works will raise the productivity of
labour and socialise production. That is one point. Another is that
the workers conditions in the big works will probably be better, and
not only from the material angle, than at the small agricultural oil
presses.
* V. Ilyin, Economic Studies and Essays, St. Petersburg, 1899,
pp. 139-140. (See present edition, Vol. 2, The Handicraft Census of
1894-95 in Perm Gubernia and General Problems of “Handicraft”
Industry.—Ed.