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

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

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA<br />

337<br />

brush-making industry in Moscow Gubernia “is usually<br />

attributed <strong>to</strong> the present producers’ objection <strong>to</strong> having<br />

new competi<strong>to</strong>rs. It is said that they do all they can <strong>to</strong> conceal<br />

their work from strangers, and so only one producer<br />

has apprentices from outside.”* Concerning the village <strong>of</strong><br />

Bezvodnoye, Nizhni-Novgorod Gubernia, famous for its<br />

metalware industry, we read the following: “It is remarkable<br />

that <strong>to</strong> this day” (the beginning <strong>of</strong> the 80s; the industry has<br />

existed since the beginning <strong>of</strong> the 50s) “the inhabitants<br />

<strong>of</strong> Bezvodnoye carefully conceal their craft from the neighbouring<br />

peasants. They have made more than one attempt<br />

<strong>to</strong> induce the volost administration <strong>to</strong> issue an instruction<br />

making it a punishable <strong>of</strong>fence <strong>to</strong> carry the craft <strong>to</strong><br />

another village; though they have failed <strong>to</strong> get this formality<br />

adopted, each <strong>of</strong> them seems <strong>to</strong> be morally bound by<br />

such an instruction, in virtue <strong>of</strong> which they refrain from<br />

giving their daughters in marriage <strong>to</strong> inhabitants <strong>of</strong> neighbouring<br />

villages, and as far as possible avoid taking girls<br />

in marriage from those villages.”**<br />

The Narodnik economists have not only tried <strong>to</strong> obscure<br />

the fact that the bulk <strong>of</strong> the small peasant industrialists<br />

belong <strong>to</strong> the category <strong>of</strong> commodity-producers, but have<br />

even created quite a legend about some pr<strong>of</strong>ound antagonism<br />

allegedly existing between the economic organisation <strong>of</strong> the<br />

small peasant industries and large-scale industry. The<br />

unsoundness <strong>of</strong> this view is also evident, by the way, from<br />

the above-quoted data. If the big industrialist s<strong>to</strong>ps at<br />

nothing <strong>to</strong> ensure himself a monopoly, the peasant engaging<br />

in “handicrafts” is in this respect his twin brother; the petty<br />

bourgeois endeavours with his petty resources <strong>to</strong> uphold<br />

substantially the same class interests the big manufacturer<br />

seeks <strong>to</strong> protect when he clamours for protection, bonuses,privileges,<br />

etc.***<br />

* Industries <strong>of</strong> Moscow Gubernia, VI, 2, 193.<br />

** Transactions <strong>of</strong> the Handicraft Commission, IX, 2404.<br />

*** Sensing that competition will be fatal <strong>to</strong> him, the petty<br />

bourgeois strives <strong>to</strong> stave it <strong>of</strong>f, just as his ideologist, the Narodnik,<br />

senses that capitalism is fatal <strong>to</strong> the “foundations” so dear <strong>to</strong> his heart,<br />

and for that reason strives <strong>to</strong> “avert,” <strong>to</strong> prevent, <strong>to</strong> stave <strong>of</strong>f,<br />

etc., etc.

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