**Variant 1**

Commodity production is developing ever more rapidly in Russia, and the capitalist mode of production is gaining ever more complete domination in it.

An ever-increasing majority of the population cannot maintain its existence except by selling its labour power. It thus finds itself in the dependent position of wage-workers (proletarians) vis-à-vis a relatively small class of capitalists and big landowners, who concentrate in their hands the most important part of the means of production and circulation of commodities.

The most important part of the means of production becomes concentrated in the hands of an insignificant number of capitalists and big landowners, as their private property. A growing number of working people, losing the means of production, are compelled to resort to selling their labour power. They thus find themselves in the dependent position of wage-workers (proletarians) who by their labour create the income of the owners.

The development of capitalism steadily increases the number, size, and economic importance of large enterprises, depresses the living standard of the small independent producers (peasants, handicraftsmen, artisans), turns some of them into servants and tributaries of capital, and forces others into the ranks of the proletariat.

The further technical progress advances, the greater the opportunities the capitalists have of raising the level of exploitation of the workers, and the more the increase in the demand for labour power lags behind the increase in its supply.

This process is rendered even more acute by industrial crises, which are inevitably engendered by the aforementioned contradictions of capitalism. The poverty and destitution of the masses are combined with the waste of social wealth owing to the impossibility of finding a market for the goods produced.

Thus, the gigantic development of the productive forces of social labour, labour which is becoming more and more socialised, is accompanied by the monopolisation of all the principal benefits of this development by an insignificant minority of the population. Side by side with the growth of social wealth there grows social inequality, and the gulf between the class of the owners (the bourgeoisie) and the class of the proletariat deepens and widens.

(A) § III. Small-scale production is being increasingly squeezed out by large-scale production. The small independent producers (peasants, handicraftsmen, artisans) are turning either into proletarians, or into servants and tributaries of capital.

The continuous improvement of technology leads to the increasing squeezing-out of small-scale production by large-scale production. The most important part of the means of production (land and factories, instruments and machines, railways and other means of communication) becomes concentrated in the hands of a comparatively small number of capitalists and big landowners, as their private property. The small independent producers (peasants, handicraftsmen, artisans) are increasingly ruined, losing the means of production and thus turning into proletarians or becoming servants and tributaries of capital. An ever-increasing majority of working people are compelled to resort to selling their labour power.

**Variant 2**

Commodity production is developing ever more rapidly in Russia, and the capitalist mode of production is gaining ever more complete domination in it.

The most important part of the means of production (land and factories, instruments and machines, railways and other means of communication) becomes concentrated in the hands of a comparatively small number of capitalists and big landowners, as their private property.

The development of capitalism steadily increases the number, size, and economic importance of large enterprises, worsens the position of the small independent producers (peasants, handicraftsmen, artisans), turns some of them into servants and tributaries of capital, and forces others into the ranks of the proletariat.

The further technical progress advances, the greater the opportunities the capitalists have of raising the level of exploitation of the workers, and the more the increase in the demand for labour power lags behind the increase in its supply. Insecurity of existence and unemployment, the yoke of exploitation and all manner of humiliation become the lot of ever wider strata of the working population.

This process is rendered even more acute by industrial crises, which are inevitably engendered by the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. The poverty and destitution of the masses is combined with the waste of social wealth owing to the impossibility of finding a market for the goods produced.

Thus, the gigantic development of the productive forces of social labour, labour which is becoming more and more socialised, is accompanied by the monopolisation of all the principal benefits of this development by an insignificant minority of the population. Side by side with the growth of social wealth there grows social inequality, and the gulf between the class of the owners (the bourgeoisie) and the class of the proletariat deepens and widens.