V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v35;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

CONSUMPTION OF THE URBAN AND RURAL POPULATION IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[Note by the Collection: The calculations given below were partly used by V. I. Lenin in his work “Economics and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” (Works, Vol. XXIV, p. 510).]

1) According to data from a food survey.
2) According to data from the People’s Commissariat for Food (for the producing zone, supplies from local sources must be added).

The calculation was made for 26 gubernias of Soviet Russia, of which 14 are usually classified as the consuming zone and 12 as the producing zone. The zone included in the calculation extends eastward to the Volga, not including the Trans-Volga area (Samara, Ufa, Orenburg, and also Astrakhan gubernias), and westward does not include Byelorussia with Vitebsk and Pskov gubernias.

Rural meat consumption:
  Consuming gubernias — 4,951 thousand poods (or 1.36 poods per capita)
  Producing gubernias — 25,760 thousand poods (0.90 pood per capita)

Thus, even taking into account peasant bag-trading to the maximum extent, the grain consumption of the rural population in the producing zone remains somewhat higher than usual, while the grain consumption of the rural population in the consuming zone is lower than the norm.

Total consumption (formerly / now):
  Producing zone — 17 / 18
  Consuming zone — 14 / 10

Grain consumption in 1918–1919. Supplied (total / of which by the Food Commissariat / by bag-traders):
  Total for 26 gubernias — 121.4 / 53.0 / 68.4
  (53.0 out of 121.4 = 43.65%)
  Formerly it was about 1 pood: 0.74 × 1.4 = 1.036 pood per capita.

Comparison of consumption in 1918–1919 with pre-war consumption (per capita on average, in poods):

  Grain consumption:
    Urban population — producing gubernias 9.5; consuming gubernias 6.8
    Rural population — producing gubernias 16.9; consuming gubernias 11.0
  Meat consumption:
    Urban population — producing gubernias 1.2; consuming gubernias 1.2
    Rural population — producing gubernias 0.9; consuming gubernias 0.4

  6.8 poods = 288 pounds : 365 = 0.788 pound per day.