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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
303
The preponderance of small and tiny farms among the
tobacco growers (11,997 farms out of 25,089 have up to onetenth
of a dessiatine planted) does not in the least refute
the fact of the capitalist organisation of this branch of
commercial agriculture; for this mass of tiny farms accounts
for an insignificant share of the output (11,997, i.e., nearly
half the farms, have in all 522 dess. out of 6,844, or less
than one-tenth). Nor do “average” figures, to which people
so often confine themselves, provide a picture of the real
situation (the average per farm is a little over 4 dessiatine
under tobacco).
In some uyezds the development of capitalist agriculture
and the concentration of production are still more marked.
In the Lokhvitsa Uyezd, for example, 229 farms out of
5,957 each have 20 dessiatines and more under cereals.
Their owners have 22,799 dess. under cereals out of a total
of 44,751, i.e., more than half. Each farmer has about
100 dess. under crops. Of the land under tobacco they have
1,126 dess. out of 2,003 dess. And if the farms are grouped
according to area under tobacco, we have in this uyezd
132 farmers out of 5,957 with two and more dessiatines under
tobacco. These 132 farmers have 1,441 dess. under tobacco out
of 2,003, i.e., 72% and more than ten dessiatines under
tobacco per farm. At the other extreme of the same Lokhvitsa
Uyezd we have 4,360 farms (out of 5,957) having up to onetenth
of a dessiatine each under tobacco, and altogether
133 dessiatines out of 2,003, i.e., 6%.
It goes without saying that the capitalist organisation of
production is accompanied here by a very considerable
development of merchant’s capital and by all sorts of exploitation
outside the sphere of production. The small tobacco
growers have no drying sheds, are unable to give their
tobacco time to ferment and to sell it (in 3 to 6 weeks) as a
finished product. They sell the unfinished product at half
the price to buyers-up, who very often plant tobacco themselves
on rented land. The buyers-up “squeeze the small
planters in every way” (p. 31 of cited publication). Commercial
agriculture is commercial capitalist production: this
relation can be clearly traced (if only one is able to
select the proper methods) in this branch of agriculture
too.