V. I.

Lenin

At the Kiev Agricultural Congress, before an audience of
1,000 landowners from all parts of Russia, Professor Kosinsky read the
first paper, in which he tried to prove that “family farming” had become
paramount in agriculture.

The question of “family” farming is one of the most important when
one is seeking an explanation of capitalist relations in agriculture. In
Russia, moreover, there is the Narodnik bourgeois party (this includes the
Left Narodniks), which tries to make the workers believe it is a socialist
party and most zealously advocates “family” farming. It is, therefore,
necessary for every class-conscious worker to understand what this
“family” farming is.

Mr. Bourgeois Professor Kosinsky, producing no data of any kind,
asserted that peasant farming is growing and large-scale farming, which
exploits wage-labour, is collapsing and dying out. The professor “ distinguished three forms of peasant farms:
(1) parcellised (dwarf) farms, when the peasant works at a factory, and at
home, in his own village, has only a vegetable garden or an allotment
attached to his house, the cultivation of which provides a small addition
to his in come; (2) subsistence farms, with a somewhat larger allotment, the cultivation of
which does not meet all the requirements of the family, some members of
which work elsewhere; (3) family farms, peasant farms proper, on which the entire family works.

“ Agrarian evolution is leading to the break-up of the second category and its replacement by family and parcellised farms. The
future is assured mainly for the family farms. The average size of these
farms, expressed in Russian measure, is about 50 dessiatines. The triumph
of family farming is in no way accompanied by the proletarianisation of the
rural districts” ( Kievskaya Mysl No. 242).

These, then, are the principles of the bourgeois theory of “family”
farming borrowed by the Narodniks. Every worker who is in any way familiar with political economy will immediately
see that what Mr. Bourgeois calls parcellised or dwarf farms are the
proletarian , labourer farms, the “farms” of wage-workers.

Evidently by “subsistence” farms he means small peas ant farms which
do not produce mainly for exchange; not commercial farms, but natural
economy farms (on which the peasant produces his own food). In admitting
that these farms are being ousted our uninformed bourgeois professor admits
the victory of capitalism, the growth of exchange, and the squeezing out of
small farming. By what kind of farming is it being ousted? Firstly
by proletarian farming. This is precisely what is called
proletarianisation, Mr. Uninformed Professor! Secondly by “family”
farming, in which the average size of farms is about 50 dessiatines.

It remains for me to prove to the uninformed professor and to his
Socialist-Revolutionary (Narodnik) pupils that “family”, farming is
precisely petty-bourgeois, capitalist farming.

What is the principal feature of capitalism? The employment of
wage-labour. It is time our professors and Socialist-Revolutionaries learnt
this truth.

What do European, scientific statistics tell us about wage-labour in
peasant farming? They tell us that not only 50–dessiatine farms, but even
farms of over 10 hectares (a hectare is about the same as a
dessiatine), in the majority of cases , cannot dispense with
wage-labour!

Germany . The last census (1907). Number of farms from 10 to 20
hectares—412,741. These employ 711,867 wage-workers. Even the farms from
5 to 10 hectares employ a total of 487,704 wage-workers on 652,798
farms. In other words: even here the number of wage-workers equals more
than half the total number of farms. And everybody knows that in the
overwhelming majority of cases the small farmer does not employ more than
one hired worker.

Austria . The last census (1902). Number of farms from 10 to 20
hectares—242,293. Of these the majority , 142,272, i.e., nearly
three-fifths, employ wage-workers. We will add that the development of
capitalism in Austria is far behind that of Germany. Taking Austrian
agriculture as a whole, the percentage of wage-workers employed is
half

the German percentage (14 per cent as against 30 per cent).

Switzerland . The last census (1905). Number of farms from 10
to 15 hectares—19,641. Of these, 11,148, i.e., the majority ,
employ wage-workers. Of the farms of 5 to 10 hectares about 36 per cent in
Switzerland and 33 per cent in Austria employ wage-workers.

One can judge from this how profoundly ignorant, or extremely
unconscientious, is the bourgeois professor in whose train the Narodniks
follow, a professor who denies the proletarianisation of the rural
districts and admits that “subsistence” farms are being ousted,
firstly, by proletarian farms, and secondly, by “family” farms, applying
this sentimental catchword to farms employing wage-workers!

All those who praise the successes of “family” farming under
capitalism (including our Left Narodniks) are bourgeois, Who deceive the
workers. The deception lies, firstly, in painting the bourgeoisie in bright
colours. The exploiter of wage-labour is called a “working” farmer!
Secondly, the deception lies in concealing the gulf that divides the
overwhelming majority of the proletarian farms from the insignificant
minority of capitalist farms.

The interests of the bourgeoisie demand the embellishment of capitalism
and the concealment of the gulf that divides the classes. The interests of
the proletariat demand the exposure of capitalism and of the exploitation
of wage-labour; they demand that the eyes of the masses be opened to the
immensity of the gulf that divides the classes.

Here are brief figures taken from the census of 1907, showing the gulf
that divides the classes in German agriculture. Total number of
farms—5,700,000. Of these, proletarian farms (up to two hectares) number
3,400,000. The overwhelming majority of these “farmers” are
wage-workers who possess small plots of land.

Then follow the petty farmers (2 to 5 hectares per farm; total number
of farms, 1,000,000). These are the poorest peasants. Less than half of
them (495,000) are independent tillers without any other
occupation. The majority are in need of outside employment, i.e., they have
to sell their labour-power. These peasants join the proletariat most
easily.

We will combine these to make up Group I : proletarian and
small peasant farms.

Group II: middle peasant farms (5 to 10 hectares). As we have seen, a
fairly large number of these exploit wage-workers. The middle peasant is a
petty bourgeois who wavers between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

Group III: the rest, i.e., the capitalists (20 hectares and over) and
big peasants (10 to 20 hectares). As we have seen, the majority of
the big peasants exploit wage-workers.

Thus, Group I consists of proletarian and small peasant farms; Group II
consists of middle peasant farms; Group III consists of big peasant and
pure capitalist farms. Let us see how much land and livestock these groups
own.

| Group | Number of farms (000,000) | Number of workers (000,000) | Area of land (000,000 hectares) | Number of livestock (in terms of cattle) (000,000) | Number of machines (000,000) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| I . . . . | 4.4 | 7.3 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 0.2 |
| II . . . . | 0.6 | 2.5 | 4.6 | 5.1 | 0.4 |
| III . . . . | 0.7 | 5.4 | 22.2 | 17.3 | 1.2 |
| Total | 5.7 | 15.2 | 31.8 | 29.4 | 1.8 |

Such is the picture of modern agriculture; not the picture drawn by the
professor, or by the Narodniks, but the real picture. Most of the
land, livestock and machines belong to an insignificant minority (less than
one-eighth—0.7 out of 5.7) of capitalists and peasant bourgeois. The
overwhelming majority of the “farmers” (4.4 million out of 5.7
million) have less than two workers, less than two dessiatines and less
than two head of livestock per farm. These are paupers. Their share in the
total agricultural production is insignificant. They are led by the nose
with promises of salvation under capitalism.

Compare the productivity of labour in the various groups (i.e., the
number of workers per dessiatine of land and per head of livestock), and
you will see a barbarous dissipation and waste of labour on the small
farms. The capitalist farms own nearly all the machines and labour
productivity is high.

Compare the number of livestock with the amount of land (including
meadow land, land under fodder crops, etc.)

in the various groups. You will see starving cattle in the small farms and
capitalist “prosperity” among the small group at the top.

The Marxists champion the interests of the masses and say to the
peasants: there is no salvation for you except by joining in the
proletarian struggle. The bourgeois professors and the Narodniks are
deceiving the masses with fables about small “family” farming under
capitalism.

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