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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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578<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

youth are so eager <strong>to</strong> go <strong>to</strong> the <strong>to</strong>wn” (Survey <strong>of</strong> Yaroslavl<br />

Gubernia, II, 189-190).<br />

Migration <strong>to</strong> the <strong>to</strong>wns loosens the old patriarchal family<br />

ties and places women in a more independent position, on<br />

an equal footing with men. “Compared with those in the<br />

localities <strong>of</strong> no migration, the families <strong>of</strong> Soligalich and<br />

Chukhloma” (the uyezds <strong>of</strong> Kostroma Gubernia where<br />

migration is greatest) “are much less closely knit, not only in<br />

the sense <strong>of</strong> the patriarchal authority <strong>of</strong> the older, but even<br />

in the relations between parents and children, husband and<br />

wife. One cannot, <strong>of</strong> course, expect strong affection for their<br />

parents and attachment <strong>to</strong> the parental home from sons<br />

who are sent <strong>to</strong> Petersburg from the age <strong>of</strong> 12; unconsciously<br />

they become cosmopolitans: ‘where it is well, there is my<br />

country.’”* “Accus<strong>to</strong>med <strong>to</strong> dispense with the authority and<br />

assistance <strong>of</strong> her husband, the Soligalich woman is quite<br />

unlike the downtrodden peasant woman <strong>of</strong> the agricultural<br />

zone: she is independent and self-reliant. . . . Wife-beating is<br />

a rare exception here. . . . Generally speaking, equality<br />

between women and men is <strong>to</strong> be observed almost everywhere<br />

and in all things.”**<br />

Last but not least,*** non-agricultural migration raises<br />

the wages not only <strong>of</strong> the wage-workers who migrate but<br />

also <strong>of</strong> those who stay behind.<br />

This fact is most strikingly reflected in the general circumstance<br />

that the non-agricultural gubernias where wages<br />

are higher than in the agricultural gubernias, attract<br />

agricultural workers from the latter.**** Here are some<br />

interesting data for Kaluga Gubernia:<br />

Monthly earnings<br />

in rubles<br />

Groups <strong>of</strong> uyezds % <strong>of</strong> migra<strong>to</strong>ry <strong>of</strong> migra- <strong>of</strong> rural<br />

according <strong>to</strong> scale male workers <strong>to</strong> <strong>to</strong>ry indus- worker em<strong>of</strong><br />

migration <strong>to</strong>tal male population<br />

trialist ployed by the<br />

year<br />

I. 38.7 9 5.9<br />

II. 36.3 8.8 5.3<br />

III. 32.7 8.4 4.9<br />

* Ibid., 88.<br />

** Yuridichesky Vestnik, 1890, No. 9, p. 142.<br />

*** This expression is in English in the original.—Ed.<br />

**** Cf. Chapter IV, §IV, pp. 270-271.

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