V. I.

Lenin

The “Oil Hunger” [2]

The question of the “oil hunger”, the inordinate increase in the
price of oil and the criminal conspiracy of the oil magnates for the
purpose of fleecing the consumer, has aroused quite legitimate interest and
quite understandable indignation in the Duma, and to a still greater degree
out side the Duma.

The duel between the Minister of Commerce and Industry, who in a
faintly disguised form defended the oil kings of the syndicate,
and Mr. Markov the Second, who furiously and ardently expressed the hurt
feelings of the noble feudal landowners—this duel (at the State Duma
sitting on March 22) deserves the particular attention of the working class
and all democrats. The duel throws a bright light on the relations as a
whole that exist between the two “ruling” classes of Russia, the two
so-called “higher” (but actually very low, despicable, plundering)
classes, the class of feudal landowners and the class of financial tycoons.

It would seem at first glance that the question of the oil syndicate is
an isolated one. But that is not so. Actually it is only a manifestation of
the general and fundamental question of the government of Russia (or rather
the plunder of Russia) by the two commanding classes. The speech by Markov
the Second was a magnificent reply to the defender of the oil “kings”
given from the standpoint of a diehard [3] who was cheated when the prey was divided. No wonder
Mr. Markov the Second could not “behold himself”, could not look at
himself (and his landowning friends) in the mirror at the time of his
speech. I shall try to do Mr. Markov the Second a service—I will place a
mirror in front of him. I will draw him a portrait of himself. I will show
that the “quarrel” between Markov the Second and Khvostov, on the one hand and the
oil kings, the tycoons of the kerosene syndicate, the millionaires of Baku, on
the other, is a domestic quarrel, a quarrel between two
plunderers of the people’s property. “The falling-out of lovers is
the renewing of love.” The Minister and Messrs. Nobel & Co., on the
one hand, and Messrs. Khvostov, Markov and their friends in the
Senate, [4] the Council of State, etc., on the other, are
“ lovers ”. But the tens of millions of workers and ruined
peasants of Russia get a rough deal from this sweet and loving lot!

What lies at the bottom of the oil question?

First of all it is the shameless inflation of oil prices by the oil kings
accompanied by the artificial curtailment of oil-well and refinery
productivity by these “knights” of capitalist profit.

The chief figures illustrating these points have been quoted in the Duma, but I
must repeat them in brief to make my further exposition quite clear. The price
of oil was six kopeks a pood [1] in 1902. By 1904 it had risen to fourteen
kopeks. Then the price “race” became all the merrier and, after the
Revolution of 1905, the price of a pood of oil rose to twenty-one kopeks in
1908-09 and to thirty-eight kopeks in 1912.

Thus the price has increased more than sixfold in ten years! In the
same period the extraction of oil has decreased from 600-700 million
poods in 1900-02 to 500-585 million poods in 1908-12.

These figures are worth remembering. They deserve some thought. A reduction of
output in a decade of tremendous upward leaps in world production, accompanied
by a more than sixfold price increase.

The Minister of Commerce and Industry put forward unbelievably weak arguments
in defence of these merchants and industrialists who are acting in collusion.

“ There is an increased demand for fuel,” he said. “There is an
increased demand for oil from the automobile and air craft industry.” And
he comforted us and the Russian people by saying that it is a
“world-wide” phenomenon.

“ What about America?” we ask. This is a question that arises
naturally because everybody knows that America is Russia’s only serious
competitor in oil production. In 1900 Russia and America together produced over
nine-tenths of the world’s oil and in 1910 they produced over
eight-tenths.

If it is a matter of a “world-wide” phenomenon, Mr. Minister,
the same must also be true of America? In order to create an
impression on inattentive listeners, the Minister, when defending the
conspiring oil plunderers, quoted figures for America ... but only for two years ! During the two past years the price of oil in America, and in
Rumania, too, has doubled.

Very good, Mr. Minister! Why not make your comparison complete? If you want to
draw comparisons do so properly. Don’t play with figures. You must take
the figures for America for the same period as that for which the
figures for Russia have been given. Surely it must be obvious that this is the
most fundamental, the most elementary condition, the very ABC of every
conscientious application of statistics!

In Russia in ten years prices have increased more than sixfold as
compared with the lowest price, that of 1902, quoted by the Minister
himself. And in America? Nothing like such a rise in prices has
occurred. Between 1900 and 1910 the price in America was reduced . During recent years it has remained firm.

What, then, is the result? The price has been doubled in America and
increased sixfold in Russia. In 1900 the output of oil in America was
less than in Russia and in 1910 it was three times greater
than in Russia!

This is something the Minister, in his clumsy defence of the oil millionaires’
conspiracy, did not want to say. The fact is there, however. Whatever figures
you take, there can be no doubt that the rise in prices in America for the past
ten years has been incomparably smaller than in Russia, while the
output has increased tremendously at a time of disgraceful stagnation
or even a step backward in Russia.

We see immediately how little truth and how much untruth there is in our
Minister’s reference to the “world-wide” phenomenon of price
increase. Yes, there are higher prices everywhere. Yes, there are the causes,
common to all capitalism, that give rise to it.

The situation is intolerable in Russia, however, because in
our country it is on oil that the price increase is immeasurably greater,
and because in the oil industry we have stagnation instead of increased
output. The situation is absolutely intolerable in Russia because
we see, instead of a broad, free and rapid development of capitalism,
stagnation and decay. High prices are therefore a hundred times more
malignant in Russia.

Russia has a population of 170,000,000 and America 90,000,000, i.e., a
little more than half. America now extracts three times more oil
than we do and eighteen times more coal. Judging by the wages of
the workers, living standards in America are four times higher
than in Russia.

Is it not clear that the Minister’s statement to the effect that the
evil is a world-wide phenomenon contains a glaring untruth? The evil hears
four times, if not ten times, more heavily on Russia.

---
Notes:
[1]
Pood=36.11 lbs.— Ed .

[2]
The MS. has no heading. This title was provided by the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.

[3]
Diehard was the name given to the extreme Right wing of the
reactionary landed proprietors.

[4]
Senate —one of the highest government bodies in tsarist
Russia. It was founded by Peter I in 1711 to replace the Boyars’ Council as
the supreme administrative and executive body dealing with current
governmental questions. The members of the Senate were appointed by the
tsar from among the higher civil servants.

Council of State —one of the highest government bodies of
tsarist Russia. It was founded in 1810 as a legislative advisory body whose
members were appointed or approved by the tsar. The Council of State was a
reactionary body that rejected even moderate bills passed by the State
Duma.