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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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UNCRITICAL CRITICISM<br />

621<br />

not even <strong>to</strong>uched upon by Kautsky. Mr. Skvortsov over and<br />

over again reveals his remarkable talent for <strong>of</strong>fering irrelevant<br />

quotations. “The main question,” says Mr. Skvortsov,<br />

advancing his second objection, “which is not explained even<br />

by the budget data, is as follows: where is the horseless<br />

peasant <strong>to</strong> obtain 25 rubles <strong>to</strong> pay his taxes” (25 per cent <strong>of</strong><br />

his cash espenditure, 25 rubles out <strong>of</strong> 100 rubles has been<br />

turned by Mr. Skvortsov simply in<strong>to</strong> 25 rubles!) “and the<br />

horse-owning peasant 10 rubles? The question is not what<br />

part <strong>of</strong> the income (?) taxes constitute in the peasants’<br />

<strong>to</strong>tal cash expenditure” (2290). I advise Mr. Skvortsov <strong>to</strong> take<br />

out a patent for a remarkable invention: the very latest<br />

and very easiest method <strong>of</strong> “scientific criticism” that radically<br />

destroys an opponent. On one out <strong>of</strong> several hundred<br />

pages <strong>of</strong> his book your opponent incidentally raises the question<br />

<strong>of</strong> the share <strong>of</strong> tax expenditure in the <strong>to</strong>tal cash expenditure;<br />

all you have <strong>to</strong> do is <strong>to</strong> quote this passage, foist<br />

another question on your opponent, and you brilliantly<br />

prove that he is a “commodity fetishist,” who, monster that<br />

he is, does not give a thought <strong>to</strong> where the poor horseless<br />

peasant is <strong>to</strong> get 25 rubles! And then, as <strong>to</strong> other pages in<br />

the book, which deal with the ratio <strong>of</strong> taxes <strong>to</strong> income,<br />

with the items and with the source <strong>of</strong> income, you can<br />

omit them and thus prove that your opponent has a “bourgeois<br />

horizon.” Really, take out a patent, Mr. Skvortsov!<br />

Here is another example <strong>of</strong> how Mr. Skvortsov utilises<br />

his invention. I ask the reader’s attention: such gems <strong>of</strong><br />

“scientific criticism” are the only ones <strong>of</strong> their kind.<br />

We refer <strong>to</strong> the same page 156, which deals with the<br />

budget figures for peasant taxes. After showing the role<br />

<strong>of</strong> taxes in the peasants’ <strong>to</strong>tal cash expenditure, I continue:<br />

“If, however, we do not take the role <strong>of</strong> taxes in the<br />

development <strong>of</strong> exchange, but take them relative <strong>to</strong> income,<br />

we shall see that it is an excessively high one. How<br />

heavily the traditions <strong>of</strong> the pre-Reform epoch weigh<br />

down upon the peasant <strong>of</strong> <strong>to</strong>day is seen most strikingly in<br />

the existence <strong>of</strong> taxes which absorb one-seventh <strong>of</strong> the gross<br />

expenditure <strong>of</strong> the small farmer, or even <strong>of</strong> the allotmentholding<br />

farm labourer. Moreover, the distribution <strong>of</strong> taxes<br />

within the village community is as<strong>to</strong>nishingly uneven: the<br />

better <strong>of</strong>f the peasant, the smaller the part <strong>of</strong> his <strong>to</strong>tal

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