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

622
V. I. LENIN
expenditure that goes in taxes. The horseless peasant pays
in proportion to his income nearly three times as much as the
peasant owning many horses (see above, table on distribution
of expenditure). . . .” Any reader who is at all attentive
in his approach to what he reads must naturally ask: Why
do I speak of the distribution of taxes within the village community,
when the budgets relate to the farms of peasants not
only of different communities, but even of different uyezds?
Perhaps the uneven distribution is here fortuitous—perhaps
it depends on the different assessment of one dessiatine
of allotment land in the different uyezds or in the different
village communities from which the farms were taken
for compiling the typical budgets? And so, in order to
eliminate this inevitable objection, I immediately went on,
after what I had said, to explain: “. . . We speak of the distribution
of taxes within the village community, because if we
calculate the amount of taxes and duties per dessiatine of
allotment land, it will be found to be nearly uniform. . . .” Had
the critic wanted to verify these words, all he needed to do
was to compare the table on page 151 (amount of taxes and
dues per farm) with the table on p. 157 (quantity of allotment
land per household) to convince himself with ease that,
judging by the budget data, although the budgeted farms
belong to different communities, and even to different uyezds,
the amounts of taxes and dues per dessiatine of allotment
land are nearly uniform.
And now, observe what methods Mr. Critic uses to
destroy his opponent! He picks out the words I underlined
about the amount of taxes per dessiatine of allotment land;
fails to notice (sic!) that these words relate only to the
budget data; ascribes to these words the meaning that the
amount of taxes per dessiatine of allotment land is nearly
uniform for the whole of the Russian peasantry; triumphantly
accuses me, because of this latter conclusion, of not
being acquainted with Zemstvo statistical publications, and
cites two tables to confirm the (generally known) fact that
in different village communities, volosts and uyezds, the
amounts of taxes per dessiatine of allotment land are far
from being uniform. Having performed this trick, the
critic goes on to add: “Indeed, within a village community
where one and the same size of allotment is received, the