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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
553
8,806 versts of new railway were opened and in the 5 years
1878-1882, only 2,221.* The extent of this fluctuation
enables us to judge what an enormous reserve army of unemployed
is required by capitalism, which now expands, and
then contracts the demand for labour. There have been two
boom periods in railway development in Russia: the end of
the 60s (and the beginning of the 70s), and the latter half of
the 90s. From 1865 to 1875, the average annual increase
in the length of the Russian railway system was 1,500 kilometres,
and from 1893 to 1897, about 2,500 kilometres.
The amount of railway freight carried was as follows:
1868—439 million poods; 1873—1,117 million poods;
1881—2,532 million poods; 1893—4,846 million poods;
1896—6,145 million poods; 1904—11,072 million poods. No
less rapid has been the growth of passenger traffic: 1868—
10.4 million passengers; 1873—22.7; 1881—34.4; 1893—
49.4; 1896—65.5; 1904—123.6 million.**
The development of water transport is as follows (data
for the whole of Russia):***
Years
Carrying capaci- Value of craft
Steamersty in million (million
poodsrubles)
Number
Total
h. p.
Number of other
craft
steam
other
craft
Total
Number of men
in crews
1868 646 47,313 — — — — — — — — — —
1884 1,246 72,105 20,095 6.1 362 368.1 48.9 32.1 81 18,766 94,099 112,865
1890 1,824 103,206 20,125 9.2 401 410.2 75.6 38.3 113.9 25,814 90,356 116,170
1895 2,539 129,759 20,580 12.3 526.9 539.2 97.9 46.0 143.9 32,689 85,608 118,297
* V. Mikhailovsky, The Development of the Russian Railway
System in Transactions of Free Economic Society, 1898, No. 2.
** Military Statistical Abstract, 511.— Mr. N. —on, Sketches,
appendix to Productive Forces, XVII, p. 67.—Vestnik Finansov,
1898, No. 43.—Yearbook of Russia for 1905, St. Petersburg, 1906.
*** Military Statistical Abstract, 445.—Productive Forces, XVII,
42.—Vestnik Finansov, 1898, No. 44.
steam
other
craft
Total
steam
other
craft
Total