V. I. Lenin

THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA

The Process of the Formation of a
Home Market for Large-Scale Industry
[Part 3 -- Chapters III and IV]

(pp. 189-330)



Written in 1896-99.
First printed in book form
at the end of March 1899


Published according to the text
of the second edition, 1908
 



From V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition,
Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1961

Vol. 3, pp. 21-607.

Translated by Joe Fineberg and by George Hanna
Edited by Victor Jerome


Prepared © for the Internet by David J. Romagnolo,
djr@marx2mao.org (November 1997)
(Corrected and Updated December 2001)


C O N T E N T S

[Part 3]
 

Chapter III.  T h e L a n d o w n e r s' T r a n s i t i o n f r o m
              C o r v é e  t o  C a p i t a l i s t  E c o n o m y  .


191

I.

The Main Features of Corvée Economy .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

191

     


  The essence of the serf system of economy and the conditions for it
191-193.


II.
 

The Combination of the Corvée and the Capitalist Sys-
tems of Economy.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


193



  The remnants of the old system after the Reform 193-194. --
The labour-service and the capitalist systems 194-195; their
relative incidence 195-197. -- The transition from the labour-
service system to the capitalist 197-198.


III.

Description of the Labour-Service System .  .  .  .  .  .

198



  Types of labour-service 198-199. -- Rentings in kind and
their significance 199-200. -- The payment of labour under la-
bour-service 201-203. -- Personal dependence under labour-
service 203-204. -- General estimation of labour-service 204-
205.


IV.

The Decline of the Labour-Service System .  .  .  .  .  .

205



  Two types of labour-service 205-206. -- The significance of
the differentiation of the peasantry 206-208. -- View of Mr. Ste-
but 209. -- Views in various publications 209-210.


V.

The Narodnik Attitude to the Problem .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

210



  The idealisation of labour-service 210-211. -- Mr. Kablukov's
argument 211-215.


VI.

The Story of Engelhardt's Farm.   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

215



  The original condition of the farm and the nature of the gradual
changes made in it 215-219.


VII.

The Employment of Machinery in Agriculture  .  .  .  .  .

219



  Four periods in the development of agricultural machinery pro-
duction 219-220. -- Incompleteness of official statistics 220-
223. -- Data on the employment of various agricultural machines
223-228.


VIII.

The Significance of Machinery in Agriculture .  .  .  .  .

228



  The capitalist character of the employment of machinery 228-
230. -- Results of the employment of machinery 230-235. --
The inconsistency of the Narodniks 235-237.


IX.

Wage-Labour in Agriculture .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

237



  "Agricultural outside employments" 237, their significance
237-238, their scale 239-240. -- Number of agricultural
workers in all European Russia 240-242.


X.

The Significance of Hired Labour in Agriculture .  .  .  .

242



  The conditions of agricultural workers 242-243. -- Specific
forms of hire 243-245. -- The conditions of workers of small and
big employers 245-246. -- First elements of public control
246-248. -- The appraisal of agricultural migration by the Nar-
odniks 248-251.
 


Chapter IV.  T h e  G r o w t h  o f C o m m e r c i a l A g r i-
               c u l t u r e .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


252

I.
 

General Data on agricultural Production in Post-Reform
Russia and on the Types of Commercial Agriculture  .  .


252



  The production of cereals and potatoes in 1864-1865, 1870-
1879, 1883-1887, 1885-1894, 252-253. -- Potato sowing
and its significance 253-254. -- Areas of commercial agricul-
ture 255. -- Mr. Kablukov's arguments 256.


II.

The Commercial Grain-Farming Area.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

257



  The shifting of the principal centre of cereal production 257. --
The significance of the outer regions as colonies 257-258. -- The
capitalist character of agriculture in this area 259-261.


III.
 

The Commercial Stock-Farming Area. General Data on the Development of Dairy Farming.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


261



  The significance of stock farming in the different areas 261-
262. -- The calculations of Messrs. Kovalevsky and Levitsky 263.
-- The development of cheese-making 264-266. -- The incom-
pleteness of official data 266. -- Technical progress 266-267.


IV.
 

Continuation. The Economy of Landlord Farming in the Area Described  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


267



  The rationalisation of agriculture 267-268. -- "Amalgamated
dairies" and their significance 268-270. -- The formation of a
home market 270. -- The migration of agricultural workers to the
industrial gubernias 271. -- The more even distribution of jobs
throughout the year 271-273. -- The small cultivators' depend-
ence and its estimation by Mr. V. V 273-275.


V.
 

Continuation. The Differentiation of the Peasantry in
the Dairy-Farming Area .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


275



  The distribution of cows among the peasants 275-276. -- De-
tails of St. Petersburg Uyezd 276-278. -- "Progressive trends in
peasant farming" 279-280. -- The influence of this progress on
the poor 280-282.


VI.

The Flax-Growing Area .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

282



  The growth of commercial flax-growing 282-284. -- Exchange
between different types of commercial agriculture 284. -- "Ex-
tremes" in the flax area 285. -- Technical improvements 285-
287.


VII.

The Technical Processing of Agricultural Produce .  .  .

287



  The significance of the factory or technical system of farming 287-288.




1) Distilling.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

288



  The extent of agricultural distilling 288-289. -- The develop-
ment and the significance of potato distilling 289-292.




2) Beet-Sugar Production .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

291



  The growth of sugar-beet production 291-292. -- The prog-
ress of capitalist agriculture.




3) Potato-Starch Production .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

294



  Its growth 294-295. -- Two processes in the development of
this branch of production 295. -- The starch "industry" in Mos-
cow Gubernia 295-297 and in Vladimir Gubernia 297-298.




4) Vegetable Oil Production  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

298



  The dual processes of its development 298. -- Oil pressing as
a cottage industry 299-300.




5) Tobacco Growing.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

300

VIII.
 

Industrial Vegetable and Fruit Growing; Suburban
Farming  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


304



  The growth of commercial fruit growing 304 and vegetable
growing 304-305. -- Peasant vegetable growers in the St. Pe-
tersburg, Moscow and Yaroslavl gubernias 305-307. -- The hot-
house industry 307. -- Industrial melon growing 307-309.
-- Suburban farming and its characteristics 309-310.


IX.
 

Conclusions on the Significance of Capitalism in Agri-
culture in Russia.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


310



  1) On the transformation of agriculture into enterprise 310. --
2) The specific features of capitalism in agriculture 311-312. --
3) The formation of a home market for capitalism 312-313. -- 4)
The progressive historical role of capitalism in Russian agriculure
313-318.


X.
 

Narodnik Theories on Capitalism in Agriculture. "The
Freeing of Winter Time" .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


318



  The narrow and stereotyped character of this theory 318. --
Its omission of highly important aspects of the process 318-323.


XI.
 
 

Continuation. -- The Village Community. -- Marx's View on Small-Scale Agriculture. -- Engels's Opinion of the Contemporary Agricultural Crisis .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .


 
323



  The Narodnik's wrong presentation of the problem of the village
community 323-325. -- Their misunderstanding of a passage in
Capital 325-326. -- Marx's estimation of peasant agriculture
326-327. -- His estimation of agricultural capitalism 327. --
Mr. N.-on's inappropriate quotation 327-330.
 


NOTES





From Marx
to Mao

Lenin
Collection

DCR
Table of
Contents

On to
Chapters
V and VI

Notes for
"Part 3"
Below



Periods

Population

Sown
 
 


all crops sown, i.e.,
cereals plus potatoes

Thousands of Chetverts
Net yield sown
 


 
Potatoes 

  Net yield

Net per-capita
yield, in
chetverts of

000's

in % %


in % %


in % %


in % %


in % %

cere-
als

pota-
toes

Total
crops

1864-66
1870-79
1883-87
1885-94

61,400
69,853
81,725
86,282

100
114
132
140


100
117
123


 
100
105

72,225
75,620
80,293
92,616

100
104
111
128


100
106
122


 
100
115

152,851
211,325
255,178
265,254

100
138
166
173


100
120
126


 
100
104

6,918
8,757
10,847
16,552

100
126
156
239


100
123
187


 
100
152

16,966
30,379
36,164
44,348

100
178
212
260


100
119
146


 
100
123

2.21
2.59
2.68
2.57

0.27
0.43
0.44
0.50

2.48
3.02
3.12
3.07



From Marx
to Mao

Lenin
Collection

Reading
Guide

DCR
Table of
Contents

On to
Chapters
V and VI