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

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

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA<br />

569<br />

indicates a diversion <strong>of</strong> the population from agriculture in<strong>to</strong><br />

commercial and industrial occupations.* How far this fact<br />

changes our idea <strong>of</strong> the size <strong>of</strong> the industrial population in<br />

the <strong>to</strong>wns may be seen from the following example. In Kaluga<br />

Gubernia the percentage <strong>of</strong> urban population is much<br />

lower than the average for Russia (8.3%, as against 12.8%).<br />

Now the Statistical Survey <strong>of</strong> that gubernia for 1896 calculates,<br />

on the basis <strong>of</strong> passport data, the <strong>to</strong>tal number <strong>of</strong><br />

months during which migra<strong>to</strong>ry workers were absent from<br />

their homes. It appears that the <strong>to</strong>tal is 1,491,600 months;<br />

divided by 12 this will give an absent population <strong>of</strong> 124,300<br />

persons, i.e., “nearly 11% <strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>tal population” (loc. cit.,<br />

46)! Add this number <strong>to</strong> the urban population (in 1897—<br />

97,900), and the percentage <strong>of</strong> industrial population will<br />

be a very considerable one.<br />

Of course, a certain part <strong>of</strong> the migra<strong>to</strong>ry non-agricultural<br />

workers are registered among the existing <strong>to</strong>wn population,<br />

and are also part <strong>of</strong> the population <strong>of</strong> the non-urban<br />

industrial centres <strong>to</strong> which we have already referred. But<br />

only a part, for owing <strong>to</strong> the mobile character <strong>of</strong> this section<br />

<strong>of</strong> the population, it is difficult <strong>to</strong> cover them by any<br />

local census; furthermore, population censuses are usually<br />

taken in the winter, whereas most <strong>of</strong> these industrial workers<br />

leave their homes in the spring. Here are data for some <strong>of</strong><br />

the principal gubernias <strong>of</strong> non-agricultural migration.**<br />

* Mr. N. —on has not noticed at all in Russia the process <strong>of</strong> the<br />

industrialisation <strong>of</strong> the population! Mr. V. V. observed it and admitted<br />

that the growth <strong>of</strong> migration expresses a diversion <strong>of</strong> the population<br />

from agriculture (The Destiny <strong>of</strong> Capitalism, 149); however, far from<br />

including this process in the sum-<strong>to</strong>tal <strong>of</strong> his views on the “destiny<br />

<strong>of</strong> capitalism,” he tried <strong>to</strong> hush it up with lamentations about the<br />

point that “there are people who find all this very natural” (for capitalist<br />

society? Can Mr. V. V. imagine capitalism without this phenomenon?)<br />

“and almost desirable” (ibid.). It is desirable without the<br />

“almost,” Mr. V. V.!<br />

** Residential Permits Issued <strong>to</strong> the Peasant Population <strong>of</strong><br />

Moscow Gubernia in 1880 and 1885.—Statistical Yearbook <strong>of</strong> Tver<br />

Gubernia for 1897.—Zhbankov: Industries Employing Migra<strong>to</strong>ry<br />

Workers in Smolensk Gubernia, Smolensk, 1896.—Same author’s: The<br />

Influence <strong>of</strong> Industries Employing Migra<strong>to</strong>ry Workers, etc., Kostroma,<br />

1887.—Industries <strong>of</strong> the Peasant Population <strong>of</strong> Pskov Gubernia,<br />

Pskov, 1898.—Mistakes in the percentages for Moscow Gubernia could<br />

not be corrected because there were no absolute figures.—For

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