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

494
V. I. LENIN
of 480,800, i.e., less than half. In the four years 1891-
1895, however, there were 872 consigners, of whom 55
dispatched over 5,000 wagon-loads each, making 925,400
wagon-loads out of 1,178,000, i.e., over � of the total
number.*
The foregoing data on the development of the mining
industry are particularly important in two respects: firstly,
they reveal with exceptional clarity the essence of the
change in social-economic relations that is taking place in
Russia in all spheres of the national economy; secondly,
they illustrate the theoretical proposition that in a
developing capitalist society there is a particularly rapid
growth of those branches of industry which produce means
of production, i.e., articles not of personal, but of productive,
consumption. The replacement of one form of
social economy by another is particularly clear in the mining
industry, because here the typical representatives of the two
forms are distinct areas. In one area there is the old
pre-capitalist world, with its primitive, routine technique,
personal dependence of a population tied to place of residence,
firmly established social-estate traditions, monopolies,
etc.; while in the other area one finds a complete
break with all tradition, a technical revolution, and the
rapid growth of purely capitalist machine industry.** This
example brings out in bold relief the mistake of the Narodnik
economists. They deny the progressive nature of capitalism
in Russia, pointing to the fact that in agriculture
our entrepreneurs readily resort to labour-service and in
industry to the distribution of home work and that in
mining they seek to secure the tying down of the
worker, legislative prohibition of competition by small
* From data of N. S. Avdakov: Brief Statistical Survey of the
Donets Coal Industry, Kharkov, 1896.
** Latterly the Urals, too, have begun to change under the influence
of the new conditions of life; and this change will be still more rapid
when the Urals are tied closer to “Russia” by railway lines. Of particular
importance in this respect will be the proposed connection by
rail of the Urals and the South with a view to the exchange of Ural
iron-ore for Donets coal. Till now the Urals and the South have scarcely
competed with each other, having worked for different markets and
existed mainly on government contracts. But the abundant rain of
government contracts will not go on for ever.