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

82
V. I. LENIN
statistical returns. — 3) The peasants with small allotments
rent more land than those with big ones.
To enable the reader clearly to judge the appropriateness
of such arguments, let alone their soundness, we quote the
corresponding figures for Dnieper Uyezd.*
% of Arable per
renting renting
households
household
(dess.)
Price per
dessiatines
(rubles)
Cultivating up to 5 dess. . . . . . . 25 2.4 15.25
” 5 to 10 ” . . . . . . 42 3.9 12.00
” 10 to 25 ” . . . . . . 69 8.5 4.75
” 25 to 50 ” . . . . . . 88 20.0 3.75
” over 50 ” . . . . . . 91 48.6 3.55
For uyezd . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.2 12.4 4.23
The question arises, of what importance can “average”
figures be here? Does the fact that those who rent land are
“many”—56%—really do away with the concentration of
the rented land in the hands of the rich? Is it not ridiculous
to take the “average” area of rented land [12 dess. per renting
household. Very often it is not even per renting household,
but per existing household that is taken. That is what
Mr. Karyshev, for example, does in his work “Peasant Rentings
of Non-Allotment Land” (Dorpat, 1892; Vol. II of Results of
Zemstvo Statistical Investigations)] by putting together peasants
of whom one takes 2 dessiatines at a fabulous price (15
rubles), evidently out of dire need, on ruinous terms, while
another takes 48 dessiatines, over and above his own adequate
amount of land, “buying” the land wholesale at the incomparably
lower price of 3.55 rubles per dessiatine? No less hollow
is the third argument: Mr. V. V. himself took care to
refute it by admitting that figures relating “to entire village
communities” (in classifying the peasants according to allotment)
“do not present a true picture of what is taking place
in the community itself” (p. 342, op. cit.).**
* The data for the Melitopol and Berdyansk uyezds are analogous.
** Mr. Postnikov cites an interesting example of a similar mistake