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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA<br />

567<br />

industrial section <strong>of</strong> the uyezd numbers 84,700, <strong>of</strong> whom<br />

56,000 do not engage in agriculture at all, and only 5,600<br />

obtain their livelihood mainly from the land. In Ekaterinburg<br />

Uyezd, according <strong>to</strong> the Zemstvo census, 65,000 inhabitants<br />

are landless and 81,000 have only meadow land.<br />

Hence, the industrial non-urban population <strong>of</strong> two uyezds<br />

alone is larger than the urban population <strong>of</strong> the whole<br />

gubernia (in 1897 it was 195,600!).<br />

Finally, in addition <strong>to</strong> fac<strong>to</strong>ry settlements, the significance<br />

<strong>of</strong> industrial centres attaches <strong>to</strong> the trading and<br />

industrial villages, which are either at the head <strong>of</strong> large<br />

handicraft districts, or have developed rapidly since the<br />

Reform, owing <strong>to</strong> their situation on the banks <strong>of</strong> rivers, near<br />

railway stations, etc. Several examples <strong>of</strong> such villages were<br />

given in Chapter VI, §II, and we saw that, like the <strong>to</strong>wns,<br />

they attract the rural population, and that they are usually<br />

marked by a level <strong>of</strong> literacy among the population above<br />

the average.* As a further example let us quote data on<br />

Voronezh Gubernia in order <strong>to</strong> show the relative importance<br />

* How numerous in Russia are villages that constitute very big<br />

centres <strong>of</strong> population may be judged from the following (though<br />

obsolete) data <strong>of</strong> the Military Statistical Abstract: in 25 gubernias <strong>of</strong><br />

European Russia there were in the 60s a <strong>to</strong>tal <strong>of</strong> 1,334 villages with over<br />

2,000 inhabitants each. Of them, 108 had from 5,000 <strong>to</strong> 10,000 inhabitants,<br />

6 from 10,000 <strong>to</strong> 15,000, 1 from 15,000 <strong>to</strong> 20,000 and 1 over<br />

20,000 (p. 169). The development <strong>of</strong> capitalism in all countries, not<br />

only in Russia, has led <strong>to</strong> the rise <strong>of</strong> new industrial centres not <strong>of</strong>ficially<br />

classified as <strong>to</strong>wns. “Differences between <strong>to</strong>wn and country are<br />

obliterated, near growing industrial <strong>to</strong>wns this takes place due <strong>to</strong> the<br />

removal <strong>of</strong> industrial enterprises and workers’ dwellings <strong>to</strong> the suburbs<br />

and outskirts <strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>wns; near declining small <strong>to</strong>wns it takes<br />

place due <strong>to</strong> the merging <strong>of</strong> the latter with the surrounding villages<br />

and also <strong>to</strong> the development <strong>of</strong> large industrial villages.... Differences<br />

between the urban and rural populated areas are eliminated due<br />

<strong>to</strong> numerous transitional formations. Statisticians have recognised<br />

this long ago, and instead <strong>of</strong> the his<strong>to</strong>rico-juridical concept <strong>of</strong> the<br />

<strong>to</strong>wn have adopted the statistical concept, which distinguishes centres<br />

<strong>of</strong> population solely according <strong>to</strong> the number <strong>of</strong> inhabitants” (Bücher,<br />

Die Entstehung der <strong>Vol</strong>kswirtschaft, Tübingen, 1893, S. 296-297 and<br />

303-304). In this respect also Russian statistics lag far behind European<br />

statistics. In Germany and in France (Statesman’s Yearbook,<br />

pp. 536, 474) under <strong>to</strong>wns are placed centres <strong>of</strong> population having<br />

more than 2,000 inhabitants, and in England “net urban sanitary<br />

districts,” i.e., also fac<strong>to</strong>ry villages, etc. Hence, Russian data on the<br />

“urban” population are not at all comparable with European.

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

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!