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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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378<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

it is not the pr<strong>of</strong>itableness <strong>of</strong> industry, but need and ruin, that<br />

compels the peasant <strong>to</strong> abandon the land, and not only the<br />

land but also independent industrial labour; here the process<br />

<strong>of</strong> the separation <strong>of</strong> industry from agriculture is one <strong>of</strong> the<br />

expropriation <strong>of</strong> the small producer.<br />

VIII. “THE COMBINATION OF INDUSTRY WITH<br />

AGRICULTURE”<br />

Such is the favourite Narodnik formula with the aid <strong>of</strong><br />

which Messrs. V. V., N. —on and Co. hope <strong>to</strong> solve the<br />

problem <strong>of</strong> capitalism in Russia. “Capitalism” separate<br />

industry from agriculture; “people’s production” combines<br />

them in the typical and normal peasant farm—in this<br />

ingenuous contra-position lies a good part <strong>of</strong> their theory.<br />

We are now in a position <strong>to</strong> sum up as regards the question<br />

<strong>of</strong> how in reality our peasantry “combine industry with agriculture,”<br />

since a detailed examination has been made above<br />

<strong>of</strong> the typical relations existing among the agricultural and<br />

among the industrial peasantry. Let us enumerate the diverse<br />

forms <strong>of</strong> the “combination <strong>of</strong> industry with agriculture” <strong>to</strong><br />

be observed in the economics <strong>of</strong> Russian peasant farming.<br />

1) Patriarchal (natural) agriculture is combined with<br />

domestic industries (i.e., with the working up <strong>of</strong> raw materials<br />

for home consumption) and with corvée service for the<br />

landowner.<br />

This form <strong>of</strong> combining peasant “industries” with agriculture<br />

is most typical <strong>of</strong> the medieval economic regime,<br />

<strong>of</strong> which it is an essential component.* In post-Reform<br />

Russia all that is left <strong>of</strong> such patriarchal economy—in which<br />

there is as yet absolutely no capitalism, commodity production,<br />

or commodity circulation—is vestiges in the shape<br />

<strong>of</strong> the domestic industries <strong>of</strong> the peasants and labour-service.<br />

2) Patriarchal agriculture is combined with industry in<br />

the form <strong>of</strong> artisan production.<br />

* Korsak, in Chapter IV <strong>of</strong> the book mentioned above, cites<br />

his<strong>to</strong>rical evidence <strong>of</strong> the following nature, for example: “the abbot<br />

gave out (in the village) flax for spinning”; the peasants were bound<br />

<strong>to</strong> yield <strong>to</strong> the landowner “work or wares,”

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