Lenin on the Agrarian and Peasant Questions

Lenin attached great importance to the processes of agricultural and rural development. This is understandable in view of the fact that tsarist Russia where he prepared a socialist revolution had all the characteristics of an agrarian peasant country. Thus it was in Russia that many theories came into being which were contrary to the Marxist interpretations of historical evolution. Using the example of agriculture and peasantry, their authors tried to prove Marxist analysis wrong. They insisted that the special features of agriculture call for different laws of development (influence of natural factors, work with living matter, land as a special means of production, etc.). Thus defined, the agrarian question raised by bourgeois and revisionist economists did not exist for Lenin. For this sphere too is penetrated by capitalism, which leads to concentration, differentiation and social contrasts. One can only speak of different forms of its emergence in agriculture and industry, while the basic features remain the same. There are numerous works in which Lenin argued with the Populists and other champions of the agrarian question. The second group of questions which Lenin was concerned with derives from attempts to determine the attitude of the proletariat towards the peasants. Like Engels and Kautsky before him, he too was in favour of a firm alliance with small and medium farmers in the preparation for and realization of the revolution and, after its victory, for a gradual inclusion of the peasants in large-scale socialist agriculture on the principle of voluntary agreement and financial interest. The third group of questions studied by Lenin refers to the systems of co- -operation and association. In voluntary large-scale association of small producers Lenin saw the only way for agricultural development in the conditions of pettv ownership. But this involved an indispensable need for the development of industry which would provide agriculture with the necessary means