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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
565
population, on the other hand, is considerably above the average
(105% as against 97%). If Russia is to be compared with
West-European industrial countries (as is often done here),
then these countries should be compared with just this one
area, for it alone has conditions approximately similar to
those of the industrial capitalist countries.
In the second, the central agricultural area, we see a
different picture. The percentage of urban population here
is very low and grows with less than average rapidity. The
increase in the population between 1863 and 1897, both
urban and rural, was much below the average for Russia.
This is to be explained by the vast stream of migrants from
this area to the border regions. According to Mr. V. Mikhailovsky’s
calculations, between 1885 and 1897 nearly 3
million people, or more than one-tenth of the population
left these parts.*
In the third area, the outer regions, we see that the percentage
of urban population underwent an increase that
“was slightly below the average (from 11.2% to 13.3%, i.e.,
in the proportion of 100 : 118, whereas the average is from
9.94 to 12.76, i.e., in the proportion of 100 : 128). And yet
the absolute growth of the urban population here, far from
being less, was considerably above the average (# 130% as
against # 97%). The diversion of population from agri-
culture to industry has, consequently, been very intense,
but it is hidden by the enormous growth of the agricultural
population as a result of influx: in this area the rural
population increased by 87%, as against an average for
Russia of 48.5%. In certain gubernias this obscuring
of the process of the industrialisation of the population
is still more striking. For instance, in Taurida Gubernia
the percentage of urban population was the same in 1897
as in 1863 (19.6%), and in Kherson Gubernia actually
declined (from 25.9% to 25.4%), although the growth of the
towns in both the gubernias was not far behind that of the
metropolitan cities (# 131%, # 135%, as against # 141%
in the two metropolitan gubernias). The rise of a new agricultural
population on new territory thus leads, in turn,
to a still greater growth of the non-agricultural population.
* Loc. cit., p. 109. “This movement has no parallel in the modern
history of Western Europe” (110-111).