Commodity production in Russia is developing ever more rapidly, its participation in international trade exchange is intensifying[175], and the capitalist mode of production achieves ever more complete dominance within it.

An ever-increasing majority of the population cannot maintain its existence except through the sale of its labor power. It thus finds itself in a dependent position as wage laborers (proletarians) vis-à-vis a comparatively small class of capitalists and great landowners, who concentrate in their hands the most essential means of production and circulation of commodities[176].

The most essential means of production are concentrated in the hands of an insignificant number of capitalists and great landowners, as their private property. An ever-increasing number of workers, losing the means of production, are forced to resort to the sale of their labor power. They thus find themselves in a dependent position as wage laborers (proletarians), who through their labor create income for the owners.

The development of capitalism ever more increases the number, size, and economic significance of large enterprises, depresses the living standard of small independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen), transforms some of them into servants and tributaries of capital, and drives others into the ranks of the proletariat.

The further technical progress advances, the greater are the opportunities capitalists have to raise the level of exploitation of workers, the more does the increase in demand for labor power lag behind the increase in its supply.

This process is still further exacerbated by industrial crises, which are inevitably brought about by the contradictions of capitalism indicated above. The poverty and destitution of the masses coexist with the squandering of social wealth owing to the impossibility of finding a market for produced commodities.

Thus, the gigantic development of the productive forces of society and of increasingly socialized labor is accompanied by the fact that the principal benefits of this development are monopolized by an insignificant minority of the population. Along with the growth of social wealth grows social inequality; the chasm between the class of owners (the bourgeoisie) and the class of proletarians deepens and widens.

(A) § III. Small production is ever more displaced by large production. Small independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen) are transformed either into proletarians or into servants and tributaries of capital.

The continuous improvement of technique leads to small production being ever more displaced by large production. The most essential means of production (land and factories, tools and machines, railways and other means of communication) are concentrated in the hands of a comparatively insignificant number of capitalists and great landowners, as their private property. Small independent producers (peasants, artisans, craftsmen) are ever more ruined, losing the means of production and being transformed thereby into proletarians or becoming servants and tributaries of capital. An ever-increasing majority of workers are forced to resort to the sale of their labor power.