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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
575
diversity in the duration of absence to secure employment
corresponding to the difference in the groups. Where
non-agricultural industries employing migratory workers
predominate, the length of absence is much greater” (Dyelo,
1886, No. 7, p. 134).
Finally, the statistics given above for excise-paying trades,
etc., enable us to classify the residential permits issued
in all the 50 gubernias of European Russia. Making the indicated
corrections to Mr. Vesin’s classification, and distributing
among these same groups the 12 gubernias for
which figures are lacking for 1884 (Olonets and Pskov gubernias
to group I; the 9 Baltic and North-West gubernias
to group II; and Astrakhan Gubernia to group III), we get
the following picture:
Total residential
permits issued
G r o u p s o f g u b e r n i a s 1897 1898*
I. 17 gubernias with predominance
of non-agricultural migration . . 4,437,392 3,369,597
II. 12 gubernias—intermediate . . . 1,886,733 1,674,231
III. 21 gubernias with predominance
of agricultural migration . . . . 3,009,070 2,765,762
Total for 50 gubernias . . . . . . 9,333,195 7,809,590
Migration for work away from home, according to these
data, is much more prevalent in group I than in group III.
Thus, there can be no doubt that the mobility of the
population is far greater in Russia’s non-agricultural zone
than in the agricultural. The number of non-agricultural
migratory workers must be greater than that of the agricultural,
and must be not less than three million.
The enormous and ever-increasing growth of migration
is confirmed by all sources. Passport revenue increased
* Incidentally, the author of the survey of these data (loc. cit.,
Chapter VI, p. 639) ascribes the decrease in the number of passports
issued in 1898 to the drop in the migration of summer workers to the
southern gubernias resulting from the bad harvest and the widespread
use of machinery in agriculture. This explanation is of no value whatever,
since the number of residential permits issued declined least
in group III and most in group I. Are the methods of registration in
1897 and in 1898 comparable? (Note to 2nd edition.)