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

300
V. I. LENIN
Survey, Vol. II, “there are more than 40 oil presses, and
Alexeyevka itself, solely owing to sunflowers, has prospered
and grown from a wretched little hamlet into a rich township,
with houses and shops roofed with sheet iron” (p. 41).
How this wealth of the peasant bourgeoisie was reflected in
the condition of the mass of the peasantry may be seen from
the fact that in 1890, in the village of Alexeyevka, out of
2,273 families registered (13,386 persons of both sexes),
1,761 had no draught animals, 1,699 had no implements,
1,480 cultivated no land, and only 33 families did not
engage in industries.*
In general, it should be stated that peasant oil presses
usually figure, in Zemstvo house-to-house censuses, among the
FROM MARX
TO MAO
“commercial and industrial establishments,” of whose dis-
�⋆
tribution and role we have already spoken in Chapter II.
5) T o b a c c o G r o w i n g
In conclusion, let us make some brief observations on
the development of tobacco growing. The average crop in
Russia for the years 1863-1867 was 1,923,000 poods from
32,161 dess.; for 1872-1878 it was 2,783,000 poods from
46,425 dess.; for the NOT 80s, it was FOR 4 million poods from 50,000
dess.** The number of plantations in the same periods was
estimated at 75,000, 95,000 and 650,000 respectively, which
evidently indicates COMMERCIAL
a very considerable increase in the number
of small cultivators drawn into this type of commercial
farming. Tobacco DISTRIBUTION
growing requires a considerable number of
workers. Among the types of agricultural migration note is
* Statistical Returns for Biryuch Uyezd, Voronezh Gubernia.—
The number of industrial establishments counted in the village was
153. According to Mr. Orlov’s Directory for 1890 there were in this
village 6 oil presses employing 34 workers, with output valued at
17,000 rubles, and according to the List of Factories and Works for
1894-95 there were 8 oil presses employing 60 workers, with an output
valued at 151,000 rubles.
** The Ministry of Finance Yearbook, I.—Historico-Statistical
Survey, Vol. I.—Productive Forces, IX, 62. The area under tobacco
fluctuates considerably from year to year: for example, the average
for 1889-1894 was 47,813 dess. (crop—4,180,000 poods), and for 1892-
1894 was 52,516 dess. with a crop of 4,878,000 poods. See Returns
for Russia, 1896, pp. 208-209.