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

448
V. I. LENIN
we described in Chapter II as the formation of an agricultural
proletariat of millions, is, incidentally, the enormous
development in the post-Reform period of capitalist
domestic industry. “What has become of the hands released
from the occupations of domestic, strictly natural economy,
which had in view the family and the few consumers in
the neighbouring market? The factories overcrowded with
workers, the rapid expansion of large-scale domestic industry
provide a clear answer” (Industries of Vladimir Gubernia, III,
20. Our italics). The figures given in the following section
will show how great the number of workers employed by
entrepreneurs in domestic industry must be in Russia
today.
VIII. WHAT IS “HANDICRAFT” INDUSTRY?
In the two preceding chapters we dealt mainly with
what in Russia is usually called “handicraft” industry; we
may now try to answer the question put in the heading.
Let us begin with some statistics, so as to judge which
of the forms of industry analysed above figure in publications
among the general mass of “handicraft industries.”
The Moscow statisticians, in concluding their investigation
of the peasant “industries,” summarised all and
sundry non-agricultural occupations. They listed altogether
141,329 persons (Vol. VII, Pt. III) engaged in local
industries (in the making of commodities), but among these
were included artisans (a section of the shoe-makers, glaziers
and many others), wood sawyers, etc., etc. Not fewer
than 87,000 (according to our calculations of the different
industries) were domestic workers employed by capitalists.*
The number of wage-workers in the 54 industries
for which we have been able to combine the data is 17,566,
out of 29,446, i.e., 59.65%. For Vladimir Gubernia we
have obtained the following results (from five issues of
Industries of Vladimir Gubernia): altogether, 18,286
engaged in 31 industries; of these 15,447 were engaged in
* Let us recall that Mr. Kharizomenov (article quoted above)
calculated that of 102,245 persons engaged in 42 industries of Moscow
Gubernia, 66% were engaged in industries where there was an absolute
predominance of the domestic system of large-scale production.