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

646 NOTES
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Handicraft Industry in Russia” (called, for short, the “Handicraft
Commission”) was set up in 1874 under the auspices of the
Council of Trade and Manufactures, at the request of the First
All-Russia Congress of Owners of Factories and Works, that
took place in 1870. The Commission included representatives
of the Ministries of Finance, Home Affairs, State Properties,
and of the Russian Geographical Society, Free Economic Society,
Moscow Agricultural Society, Russian Technical Society and
Society for the Promotion of Russian Industry and Trade.
The valuable material published by the “Handicraft Commission”
in its Transactions were mainly the fruits of the work of local,
often little-known, officials. Lenin, who made a detailed study
of the Commission’s Transactions, drew from them numerous facts
and figures showing the development of capitalist relations in
Russia’s handicraft industry. p. 149
In this column Lenin also includes incomes from fruit growing
and stock raising. p. 152
A paper by Prof. A. I. Chuprov on grain prices was discussed
by the Free Economic Society in March 1897.
The Free Economic Society (F.E.S.) was a privileged scientific
body, founded in 1765 with the aim, as its Statutes indicated
of “disseminating information beneficial to agriculture and
industry.” Scientists, from the ranks of liberal nobles or
bourgeoisie, made up the membership of the F.E.S. The
Society undertook investigations by questionnaire and sent out
expeditions to study various branches of the national economy
and parts of the country; it periodically issued Transactions
of the F.E.S., containing the results of investigations conducted,
and verbatim reports of papers read and of discussions held in
the Society’s sections. The Transactions of the F.E.S. are frequently
mentioned by Lenin in his works. p. 155
Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. III, Moscow, 1959, p. 791. p. 156
Collective responsibility—the peasants of each village community
were collectively responsible for making timely and full payments
and for the fulfilment of all sorts of services to the state
and the landlords (payment of taxes and of land redemption
instalments, provision of recruits for the army, etc.). This form
of bondage, which was retained even after serfdom was abolished
in Russia, was done away with only in 1906. p. 157
Drechsler’s data are analysed by Lenin in his The Agrarian
Question and the “Critics of Marx” (Chapter XI, “Stock Raising
on Small and Large Farms”). See present edition, Vol. 13. p. 159