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

UNCRITICAL CRITICISM
625
development of capitalism; 2) it is in our border regions,
where serfdom was either entirely unknown, or was feeblest,
and where the peasants suffer least from land shortage,
labour-service and the burden of taxation, that there has been
the greatest development of capitalism in agriculture. This
comparison is necessary precisely for an analysis of the conditions
of the “transition from the one social formation to
the other,” which I am so fiercely and so sweepingly accused
of ignoring by Mr. Skvortsov.
The extremely stereotyped nature of Mr. Skvortsov’s
views on the economic processes in peasant economy in
this country is also revealed by his remarks on migration
and on the way capitalism breaks down medieval barriers.
Now, was I not right in drawing a comparison between Mr.
Pavel Skvortsov and Mr. Nikolai —on? Both “solve” the
problem of migration by an extremely simple and entirely
negative criticism of those “who attach importance” to
migration. But that conclusion is worthy only of the most
primitive—to wit, “genuine”—Marxism, which contents
itself with absolutely abstract . . . commonplaces. What does
“attach importance” to migration mean? If we take these
words in their literal sense, can there be a single economist
of sound mind and good memory who does not attach importance
to the annual migrations? If we take these words in
the specific sense of capitalism, then, firstly, Mr. Skvortsov
distorts my meaning, for I say the very opposite in the passage
he quotes. Secondly, an economist who sets out to
study the characteristics of the economic system and
development of Russia (not only to bring lengthy, and often
irrelevant, quotations from Marx) must necessarily
ask: what influence is exerted by the migrations in Russia?
Without making a special study of the question, I remarked
in the passage indicated by Mr. Skvortsov that my conclusions
on the differentiation of the peasantry fully correspond
to those of Mr. Hourwich.* Moreover, I repeatedly
I think that “commodity production is the miraculous and all-explaining
starting-point in history (sic!) since the days of Russkaya
Pravda” (sic!). This, apparently, is some more of the “tchi-tchi” type
of criticism to which, as it is, I think I devoted too much time at the
beginning of this article.
* A propos of Mr. Hourwich, Mr. Skvortsov, by his unwarranted