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

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484<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

1. The number <strong>of</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ries in Russia has been rapidly<br />

growing in the post-Reform period.<br />

The opposite conclusion, which follows from our fac<strong>to</strong>ry<br />

statistics, is erroneous. The point is that the figures we<br />

are given <strong>of</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ries include small artisan, handicraft<br />

and agricultural establishments, and the further back we<br />

go from the present day, the larger the number <strong>of</strong> small<br />

establishments included in the number <strong>of</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ries.<br />

2. The number <strong>of</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ry workers and the volume <strong>of</strong> output<br />

<strong>of</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ries and works are likewise exaggerated for the past<br />

period in our statistics. This is due, firstly, <strong>to</strong> the fact that<br />

formerly a greater number <strong>of</strong> small establishments were<br />

included. Hence, the data for the industries that merge<br />

with handicrafts are particularly unreliable.* Secondly,<br />

it is due <strong>to</strong> the fact that in the past more capitalistically<br />

employed home workers were classified as fac<strong>to</strong>ry workers<br />

than <strong>to</strong>day.<br />

3. It is cus<strong>to</strong>mary in this country <strong>to</strong> think that if figures<br />

are taken from the <strong>of</strong>ficial fac<strong>to</strong>ry statistics they must<br />

be considered comparable with other figures taken from<br />

the same source, and must be regarded as more or less<br />

reliable, until the contrary is proved. What has been said<br />

above, however, leads <strong>to</strong> the opposite conclusion, namely,<br />

that all comparisons <strong>of</strong> our fac<strong>to</strong>ry statistics for different<br />

times and for different gubernias must be regarded as<br />

unreliable until the reverse is proved.<br />

IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINING INDUSTRY**<br />

In the initial period <strong>of</strong> Russia’s post-Reform development<br />

the principal centre <strong>of</strong> ore-mining was the Urals. Constituting<br />

a single area, until quite recently separated sharply<br />

* If we take the gross figures for all trades and for long periods,<br />

the exaggeration resulting from the cause mentioned will not be great,<br />

for the small establishments account for a small percentage <strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>tal<br />

number <strong>of</strong> workers and the <strong>to</strong>tal output. It goes without saying that<br />

one presumes a comparison <strong>of</strong> figures taken from similar sources<br />

(there can be no question <strong>of</strong> comparing the returns <strong>of</strong> the Ministry<br />

<strong>of</strong> Finance with those <strong>of</strong> guberna<strong>to</strong>rial reports, or <strong>of</strong> the Military<br />

Statistical Abstract).<br />

** Sources: Semyonov, A Study <strong>of</strong> His<strong>to</strong>rical Data on Russian<br />

Trade and Industry, <strong>Vol</strong>. III, St. Petersburg, 1859, pp. 323-339.<br />

Military Statistical Abstract, section on mining industry. The

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