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

90
V. I. LENIN
we get the following figures, counting from the bottom group
to the top: 3.94; 3.20; 2.90; 2.75; 2.57; 2.08; 1.78 rubles. To
show what mistakes the Narodniks fall into by thus ignoring
the concentration of rented ]and, let us quote by way of
example the arguments of Mr. Karyshev in the well-known
symposium The Influence of Harvests and Grain Prices on
Certain Aspects of the Russian National Economy (St. Petersburg,
1897). When grain prices fall, with an improvement of the
harvest, and renting prices rise, the entrepreneur renters,
concludes Mr. Karyshev, have to reduce demand and hence
the renting prices had been raised by the representatives
of consumers’ economy (I, 288). The conclusion is absolutely
arbitrary: it is quite possible that the peasant bourgeoisie
raise renting prices in spite of a drop in grain prices, for an
improvement in the harvest may compensate for the drop
in prices. It is quite possible that the well-to-do peasants
raise renting prices even when there is no such compensation,
reducing the cost of production of grain by introducing
machinery. We know that the employment of machines in
agriculture is growing and that these machines are concentrated
in the hands of the peasant bourgeoisie. Instead of
studying the differentiation of the peasantry, Mr. Karyshev
introduces arbitrary and incorrect premises about an average
peasantry. That is why all the conclusions and deductions
similarly arrived at by him in the publication quoted are of
no value whatever.
Having ascertained that diverse elements exist among the
peasantry, we can now easily get clarity on the question of
the home market. If the well-to-do peasants control about
q of the total agricultural production, it is obvious that
they must account for an incomparably larger share of the
grain on sale. They produce grain for sale, whereas the badlyoff
peasants have to buy additional grain and sell their
labour-power. Here are the data:*
* We identify with the sale of labour-power what the statisticians
call “agricultural industries” (local and away from the village). That
by these “industries is meant employment as regular and day labourers
is clear from the table of industries (Combined Returns for Samara
Gubernia, Vol. VIII): of 14,063 males engaged in “agricultural
industries,” 13,297 are farm labourers and day labourers (including
shepherds and ploughmen).