V. I. Lenin

1893

1

To:   P. P. MASLOV

I received your letter [1] the day before yesterday, and yesterday I wrote to inform you that the
articles on the peasant reform [4] had been sent to you. Let me know whether you have the article
on
Postnikov. [2]

If you have it, send it as soon as you can to N. Y. with the request that
it be forwarded to me immediately after it has been read; I need it.

I am very sorry you did not find me in
Samara. [3]

Are you planning a trip to the capitals for the holidays? If you are, we
could meet.

I am expecting from you a critical analysis in as minute detail as
possible of the article on Postnikov: I trust you have noticed that I am
drawing far more important and far-reaching conclusions from the premises
set forth in it than are to he found in the article itself. The
disintegration of our small producers (the peasants and handicrafts men)
appears to me to be the basic and principal fact explaining our urban and
large-scale capitalism, dispelling the myth that the peasant economy
represents some special structure (it is the same bourgeois structure with
the sole difference that it is still shackled to a far greater extent by
feudal fetters), and making it patent that what are called “workers” are
not a handful of specially circumstanced people but simply the outer layers of the vast mass of peas ants who
already derive their livelihood more from the sale of their labour power
than from their own husbandry. I value Postnikov’s book so highly just
because it contains data for a precise examination of the situation,
provides factual proof of the absurdity of the current notions concerning
our “communal” village, and shows that, essentially, the pattern in our
country does not differ from that of Western Europe.

I offered the article to Russkaya Mysl [5] but it did not choose to publish it. I have been wondering
whether it would be better to enlarge and revise the article somewhat and
publish it in pamphlet form.

It would be very interesting to hear your opinion on this; I think this
could be done by correspondence.

The basic premise in my comments on the works about the reform was that
this reform stemmed from the development of commodity economy and that its
entire meaning and purpose was the destruction of the fetters retarding and
restricting the development of this system. We shall discuss this in
greater detail some other time—perhaps I shall be able to forward to you
the comments I sent to the author; this would be simplest and most
convenient.

Let me have your reply as soon as possible, indeed at once, otherwise
the letter may not find me here.

---
Notes:
[1]

You could have found out my address from the Bar Council here. — Lenin

[2]

See V. I. Lenin, “New Economic Developments in Peasant Life” (present
edition, Vol 1, pp. 11–73)— Ed .

[3]

And did not meet my friends there. — Lenin

[4]

A reference to articles by N. Y. Fedoseyev examining the economic and
political situation in Russia and criticising the erroneous views of the
Narodniks. Lenin had the manuscripts.

[5]
Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought)—a literary and political
monthly published in Moscow from 1880 to 1918. Until 1905 it adhered to a
liberal-Narodnik orientation, and in the nineties occasionally published
articles by Marxists.