The agrarian question and "critics of Marx"

The first nine chapters were written in June-September 1901, the last three chapters in the fall of 1907. The first four chapters of the work were first published in Stuttgart in the journal Zarya No. 2-3 in December 1901 under the name “Gg. "Critics" in the agrarian question. Essay One ”signed: N. Lenin. In 1905, they were legally published in Odessa as a separate brochure by the publishing house “Petrel” with a modified title: “The Agrarian Question and“ Marx Critics ”.” This title is retained in subsequent editions. Chapters 5–9 were first published in the legal journal Education No. 2 in February 1906. All 9 chapters together with the new 10th and 11th chapters are published in the collection: Vl. Ilyin: “The Agrarian Question”, part 1 (SPB, 1908). Chapter 12 is printed separately in the collection "Current Life" (St. Petersburg, 1908). In the 4th edition of the works of Lenin, the first 9 chapters were included in the 5th volume; the last 3 chapters in the 13th volume; in the 5th edition of the works of Lenin, the work is fully printed in the 5th volume. ^[1]

In his article, V.I. Lenin continues to work on the problems raised in Development of Capitalism in Russia and Capitalism in Agriculture , and also closely adjoins to the Agrarian Program of Social Democracy in the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 . This paper examines the works of domestic and foreign critics of Marx's agrarian theory - F. O. Hertz, E. David , S. N. Bulgakov , V. M. Chernov . Lenin polemics with them about the economic laws of capitalism in agriculture on the eternal natural laws of nature. He criticizes the law of diminishing soil fertility, according to which subsequent labor and capital expenditures in agriculture are always less productive than previous ones. Lenin believes that his opponents do not take into account such an important thing as the development of productive forces in agriculture, proposing this law as a cause of food shortages and rising prices for agricultural products they seek to shift responsibility for the poverty of workers under capitalism to nature. Lenin believed that Marx’s critics linked the interpretation of differential rent with the law of diminishing soil fertility, while at the same time denying the existence of absolute rent. Lenin considered it a gross mistake to unilaterally interpret the concept of “ monopoly ”, because he believed that there are two varieties in capitalist agriculture: a monopoly on land as an object of economy related to the limited land, and a monopoly of private ownership of land ^[1] .

V.I. Lenin made an attempt to refute the "theory of sustainability" of small-scale peasant farming. He believed that Marx’s critics argued that under capitalism in agriculture, unlike industry, small-scale production was viable and had major economic advantages over it. Lenin criticized the statistical methods used by his opponents to justify the “theory of stability” and contrasts them with his method of analyzing statistical data. Studying the processes taking place in the peasant economy of Germany, Denmark, and Russia, Lenin makes an attempt to find the laws of capitalist agriculture common to all the countries listed and to demonstrate the use of machinery, despite the natural features of agriculture, which do not cancel Marx’s law of concentration of capitalist production. Lenin expresses the opinion that small peasant farms exist only at the expense of plundering the productive forces of the earth and the life forces of the farmer, the development of capitalism in agriculture will inevitably lead to the ruin of most of the small peasants, with their subsequent transformation into farm laborers with an allotment and hired workers ^{[1 ]} .

V.I. Lenin’s conclusions are that the acute economic contradictions existing in the countryside show the hopeless position of the small peasantry under capitalism in the future, which can be freed from bondage and poverty only by revolutionary struggle against capital in the union and only under the leadership of the proletariat ^[1] .

• “The agrarian question and the“ critics of Marx ”” / M. Filatov // A - Angob. - M .: The Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969. - (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. Ed. AM Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, t. 1).

• "The agrarian question and the" critics of Marx ""