22.12.2012 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

498<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

there were in the same trades 274,748 workers,* i.e.,<br />

more than twice as many. The latter figure represents 80.6%<br />

<strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>tal number <strong>of</strong> mine workers in European Russia<br />

in 1890; if we assume that in 1865 the trades mentioned also<br />

covered 80.6% <strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>tal mine workers,** we get the<br />

<strong>to</strong>tal number <strong>of</strong> mine workers for 1865 as 165,230 and for<br />

1890 as 340,912. An increase <strong>of</strong> 107%.<br />

Further, railway workers also belong <strong>to</strong> the category <strong>of</strong><br />

workers in big capitalist enterprises. In 1890, in European<br />

Russia, <strong>to</strong>gether with Poland and the Caucasus, they numbered<br />

252,415.*** The figure for 1865 is unknown, but<br />

it can be determined with a sufficient degree <strong>of</strong> approximation,<br />

since the number <strong>of</strong> railway workers employed per<br />

verst <strong>of</strong> railway fluctuates very slightly. Counting 9 workers<br />

per verst, we get the <strong>to</strong>tal number <strong>of</strong> railway workers in<br />

1865 as 32,076.****<br />

* Statistical Returns for the Mining and Metallurgical<br />

Industries in 1890, St. Petersburg, 1892. According <strong>to</strong> this source the<br />

<strong>to</strong>tal for European Russia is 342,166, and if we subtract the number<br />

<strong>of</strong> workers at the kerosene refineries (included in the Direc<strong>to</strong>ry) and<br />

correct certain minor errors, the <strong>to</strong>tal will be 340,912.<br />

** Among the other branches <strong>of</strong> mining industries there are<br />

some in which the number <strong>of</strong> workers has probably increased slightly<br />

(salt mining), there are some in which the number must have increased<br />

very considerably (coal-mining, s<strong>to</strong>ne-quarrying), and some which<br />

did not exist at all in the 1860s (such as quicksilver-mining).<br />

*** Statistical Survey <strong>of</strong> Railways and Inland Waterways, St.<br />

Petersburg, 1893, p. 22. Published by Ministry <strong>of</strong> Communications.<br />

Unfortunately, we lack the data <strong>to</strong> separate European Russia. Under<br />

railway workers we include, not only permanent, but temporary<br />

(10,447) and day labourers (74,504). The average annual pay <strong>of</strong> a<br />

temporary worker is 192 rubles, and <strong>of</strong> a day labourer 235 rubles.<br />

The average daily pay is 78 kopeks. Consequently, both the temporary<br />

and the day workers are engaged for the greater part <strong>of</strong> the year,<br />

so that <strong>to</strong> disregard them, as Mr. N. —on does (Sketches, p. 124),<br />

is wrong.<br />

**** The number <strong>of</strong> workers per verst employed on the railways<br />

in 1886 was 9.0, in 1890—9.5; in 1893—10.2 in 1894—10.6; in 1895—<br />

10.9; thus the number obviously tends <strong>to</strong> grow. See Returns for Russia<br />

for 1890 and 1896, and Vestnik Finansov, 1897, No. 39.—Let us make<br />

the reservation that in this section we are concerned exclusively with<br />

comparing the data for 1865 and 1890, it is therefore absolutely<br />

immaterial whether we take the number <strong>of</strong> railway workers for the whole<br />

<strong>of</strong> the Empire or only for European Russia; whether we take 9 workers<br />

per verst or fewer, or whether we take all branches <strong>of</strong> mining or only<br />

those for which data exist for 1865.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!