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

470
V. I. LENIN
(Moscow, Grodno, Liflandia, Chernigov and St. Petersburg)
it dropped from 31,291 to 28,257. From this it is clear that
we have here two opposite trends, both of which, however,
indicate the development of capitalism—on the one hand,
the decline of landlord establishments of a manorial-possessional
character, 150 and on the other, the development of
purely capitalist factories out of merchant establishments.
A considerable number of the workers employed in felt cloth
production in the 60s were not factory workers at all in the
strict sense of the term; they were dependent peasants
working for landlords.* Cloth production is an example
of that specific phenomenon of Russian history—the employment
of serf labour in industry. Since we are dealing only
with the post-Reform period, the above brief remarks will
suffice to show the way in which this phenomenon is reflected
in factory statistics.** We shall now quote some figures
drawn from statistics on steam-engines in order to estimate
the development of large-scale machine production in
this industry: in 1875-1878, in the wool-spinning and
cloth industries of European Russia there were 167 mechanised
establishments using 209 steam-engines with a total of
4,632 h.p., and in 1890 there were 197 establishments using
* The following examples are taken from Zemstvo statistical
material. Concerning N. P. Gladkov’s cloth factory in Volsk Uyezd,
Saratov Gubernia (in 1866 it had 306 workers), we read in the Zemstvo
statistical abstract for this uyezd (p. 275) that peasants were forced
to work in the factory belonging to the lord. “They worked in the
factory until they married, and then became tax-paying members
of the peasant community.” In the village of Ryassy, Ranenburg
Uyezd, Ryazan Gubernia, there was in 1866 a cloth factory employing
180 workers. The peasants performed their corvée by working in the
mill, which was closed down in 1870 (Statistical Returns for Ryazan
Gubernia, Vol. II, Pt. I, Moscow, 1882, p. 330).
** See Nisselovich, A History of the Factory Legislation of the
Russian Empire, Pts. I and II, St. Petersburg, 1883-1884.—A. Semyonov,
A Study of Historical Data on Russian Foreign Trade and
Industry, St. Petersburg, 1858-1859, 3 parts.—V. I. Semevsky, The
Peasants in the Reign of Catherine II, St. Petersburg, 1881.—Statistical
Returns for Moscow Gubernia. Sanitary Statistical Sec, Vol.
IV, Pt. I (general summary), Moscow, 1890, article by A. V. Pogozhev,
“The Manorial-Possessional Factories of Moscow Gubernia.”—
M. Tugan-Baranovsky, The Russian Factory, St. Petersburg, 1898,
Vol. I.