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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
463
In 1889 the Department of Commerce and Manufactures
began to issue in separate editions Collections of Data on
Factory Industry in Russia (for 1885 and subsequent
years). These data are based on the material mentioned
(factory owners’ reports), and their treatment is far from
satisfactory, being inferior to that in the above-mentioned
publications of the 60s. The only improvement is that
the small establishments, i.e., those with an output of
under 1,000 rubles, are not included among the factories
and works, and information regarding them is given
separately, without their being distributed according to
trades.* This, of course, is a totally inadequate criterion
of what a “factory” is; a complete registration of establishments
with an output exceeding 1,000 rubles is out of the
question under the present system of gathering information;
the separation of “factories” in trades connected with agriculture
is done quite haphazardly—for instance, for some
gubernias and in some years watermills and windmills
are classed as factories, while in others they are not.**
The author of the section “Chief Results of Factory Industry
in Russia for 1885-1887” (in the Collections for these
years) falls repeatedly into error in disregarding the fact
that the data for the different gubernias are dissimilar
and not comparable. Finally, to our characterisation of
the Collections let us add that till 1891 inclusive they
only covered trades not subject to excise duty, while from
1892 onwards they cover all trades, including mining
and excise-paying; no special mention is made of data
* It goes without saying that the data on the small establishments
are quite haphazard: in some gubernias and in some years
their number is given in hundreds and thousands, in others in tens
and units. For example, in Bessarabia Gubernia, from 1887 to 1890:
1,479—272—262—1,684; in Penza Gubernia, from 1885 to 1891:
4—15—0—1,127—1,135—2,148—2,264, etc., etc.
** Cf. examples in Studies, p. 274. (See present edition, Vol. 4,
“On the Question of Our Factory Statistics.”—Ed.) Mr. Tugan-Baranovsky
was somewhat mistaken in asserting that the number
of actual factories dropped between 1885 and 1891 (The Factory,
p. 350), and comparing the average number of workers per factory
for different trades at different times (ibid., 355). The data in the
Collection are too chaotic for use, without being specially processed,
in drawing such conclusions.