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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 />

<strong>to</strong> pay “riddance” money) in any community, urban or<br />

rural, whatsoever!<br />

581<br />

And so the diversion <strong>of</strong> the population from agriculture<br />

is expressed, in Russia, in the growth <strong>of</strong> the <strong>to</strong>wns (a growth<br />

partly obscured by home colonisation), suburbs, fac<strong>to</strong>ry<br />

and commercial and industrial villages and <strong>to</strong>wnships,<br />

as well as in non-agricultural migration. All these processes,<br />

which have been and are rapidly developing in breadth<br />

and depth in the post-Reform period, are necessary<br />

components <strong>of</strong> capitalist development and are pr<strong>of</strong>oundly<br />

progressive as compared with the old forms <strong>of</strong> life.<br />

III. THE GROWTH OF THE EMPLOYMENT<br />

OF WAGE-LABOUR<br />

In considering the development <strong>of</strong> capitalism, perhaps<br />

the greatest importance attaches <strong>to</strong> the extent <strong>to</strong> which<br />

wage-labour is employed. Capitalism is that stage in the<br />

development <strong>of</strong> commodity-production in which labourpower,<br />

<strong>to</strong>o, becomes a commodity. The main tendency <strong>of</strong><br />

capitalism is <strong>to</strong> apply the sum-<strong>to</strong>tal <strong>of</strong> labour-power in the<br />

national economy <strong>to</strong> production only after it has been sold<br />

and has been purchased by the employers. Above, we<br />

made an attempt <strong>to</strong> show in detail how this tendency has<br />

manifested itself in post-Reform Russia; now, we must<br />

draw the necessary conclusions. Firstly, let us compute the<br />

data on the number <strong>of</strong> sellers <strong>of</strong> labour-power given in<br />

the preceding chapters and then (in the next section)<br />

describe the purchasers <strong>of</strong> labour-power.<br />

The sellers <strong>of</strong> labour-power are provided by the country’s<br />

working population engaged in the production <strong>of</strong> material<br />

values. It is estimated that this population numbers about<br />

15.5 million adult male workers.* In Chapter II we showed<br />

* The figure given in the Combined Statistical Material, etc.<br />

(published by Chancellory <strong>of</strong> the Committee <strong>of</strong> Ministers, 1894), is<br />

15,546,618. This figure was reached in the following way. The urban<br />

population was taken as equal <strong>to</strong> the population not participating<br />

in the production <strong>of</strong> material values. The adult male peasant population<br />

was reduced by 7% (4.5% on military service and 2.5% in<br />

civilian service).

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