V. I.

Lenin

Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

July 17 (30)-August 10 (23), 1903

18. Third Speech in the Discussion on the Agrarian Programme

August 1 (14)

Thereis nothing for Comrade Lieber to be surprised at. He demands of us a
single general criterion, but there is no such criterion. Sometimes one
demand has to be made, at other times another. We have no stereotyped
standards. Lieber claims that our demand for the abolition of
serf-ownership coincides with the liberals’ demands. But the liberals do
not say how this demand is to be carried out. We, for our part, say that
it must be carried out not by the bureaucracy, but by the oppressed
classes, and that means the way of revolution. Therein lies the
fundamental difference between us and the liberals, whose talk about
changes and reforms “pollutes” the minds of the people. If we
were to set forth in detail all the demands for the abo lition of
serf-ownership, we should fill whole volumes. That is why we mention only
the more important forms and varieties of serfdom, and leave it to our
committees in the various localities to draw up and advance their
particular demands in development of the general programme. Trotsky’s
remark to the effect that we cannot concern ourselves with local demands
is wrong, for the question of the khizani and the temporarily
bound

peasants [1] is not only a local one. Moreover, it is known in agrarian literature.

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Notes:
[1]
Khizani —the name given to the landless peasants of Georgia,
who in the distant past had been settled on the lands of the landlords on
specially agreed terms. The khizani were not formally considered
serfs, enjoyed personal liberty, but remained perpetual tenants without
any rights. The 1861 Peasant Reform did not apply to the khizani , who continued to be completely dependent on the
landlords. These began to increase the khizani’s services and
confiscate the land they held. The khizani system was abolished
after the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Temporarilybound peasants was the name given to those former
serf peasants who were still compelled to carry out certain duties
(payment of quit-rent or performance of corvée service) for the use
of their land even after the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and until they
started paying redemption money to the landlord for their allotments. From
the moment the redemption contract was concluded, the peasants ceased to
be “temporarily bound” and joined the category of “peasant property-owners.”

On Lenin’s proposal, the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. added to the
agrarian section of the Party programme the demand for “transfer to
the ownership of the peasants in the Caucasus of lands which they are
using as temporarily bound peasants, khizani , and so forth.”