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WHAT THE "FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE" ARE AND HOW THEY FIGHT THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS
NOTES <"en25">[25] V. I. Lenin's book What the "Friends of the People" Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats (Reply to Articles in Russkoye Bogatstvo Opposing the Marxists) was written in 1894 (the first part was finished in April, and the second and the third in the summer). Lenin started working on this book in Samara in 1892-93. In the Samara Marxist circle he delivered lectures in which he severely criticised the anti-Marxist liberal Narodniks V V. (Voronlsov) Mikhailovsky, Yuzhakov, and Krivenko. These lectures served as preparatory material for the book.
In the autumn of 1894 Lenin read his work, What the "Friends of the People" Are and How They fight the Social-Democrats, to members of the St. Petersburg Marxist circle. "I remember," wrote N. K. Krupskaya in her reminiscences, "how it thrilled us all. The aims of the struggle were set forth in the pamphlet with admirabie clarity. Hectographed copies of it circulated afterwards from hand to hand under the name of "The Yellow Copy-Books." They were unsigned. Fairly widely read, they undoubtedly had a strong influence on the Marxist youth at the time." (N. K. Krupskaya, Reminiscences of Lenin, Moscow, 1959, p. 15.)
Lenin's book was published in separate parts. The first partpage 518
was hectographed in June 1894 in St. Petersburg, and was illegally circulated there and in other cities. A second edition of this first part, printed the same way, appeared in I uly 1894. About 100 copies of the first and second parts were printed by A. A. Canshin in August in Gorki (Vladimir Gubernia) and in September in Moscow. In September of the same year A. A. Vaneyev, in St. Petersburg, hectographed 50 more copies of the first part (that was the fourth edition), and approximately the same number of copies of the third part. This edition of the book had the following note on the cover: "Published by a provincial group of Social-Democrats." This was made necessary by the illegal conditions under which the book was produced. Local organisations made copies of Lenin's work by various means, some parts being handwritten, others typewritten, etc. A group of Social-Democrats in Borzna Uyezd of Chernigov Gubernia hectographed copies of the book in l894; copies of this edition were circulated in Chernigov, Kiev, and St. Petersburg. At the end of 1894 the book was being read in Vilno; in 1895 in Penza; and at about the same time in Vladimir. In 1895-1896 it circulated among Marxist students in Tomsk. At the same time it was being read in Rostov-on-Don, in 1896, in Poltava and other towns.
Lenin's book was well known to the Emancipation of Labour group, and also to other Russian Social-Democratic organisations abroad.
Copies of the hectographed edition of the first and the third parts of the book were discovered in the early part af 1923 in the archives of the Berlin Social-Democratic organisation, and almost simultaneously in the State Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in Leningrad.
In the first, second and third editions of V. I. Lenin's Collected Works, it was printed according to the hectographed editions of 1894 discovered in 1923.
In 1936, the Institute of Marxism-Leninism acquired a further copy of the hectographed edition of 1894. This copy contains numerous editorial corrections, apparently made by Lenin when preparing to have the book published abroad.
The text of What the "Friends of the People" Are published in the present edition conforms to the text of the hectographed copy acquired by the Institute in 1936, account being taken of the corrections made. According to the authorised copy, inverted commas have been replaced in some passages by italics, while a number of interpolations that were in brackets in the text have been given as footnotes. Lenin's explanation to the table (Appendix I), omitted from previous editions, is also given.
The second part of the book has still not been found. [p.129]<"en26">[26] Russkoye Bogatstvo (Russian Wealth ) -- a monthly magazine published in St. Petersburg from 1876 to the middle of 1918. In the beginning of the 1890s it became the organ of the liberal Narodniks, and was edited by S. N. Krivenko and N. K. Mikhailovsky. The magazine advocated reconciliation with the tsarist government and waged a bitter struggle against Marxism and the Russian Marxists.
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In 1906 it became the organ of the semi-Cadet Popular Socialist party. [p.133]
<"en27">[27] The article referred to is N. K. Mikhailovsky's "Literature and Life," published in Russkoye Bogatstvo, No. 10, 1893. Marxists commented on the article in letters addressed to Mikhailovsky. Some of the letters were published in the magazine Byloye (The Past ), No. 23, 1924. [p.133]
<"en28">[28] The article referred to is N. K. Mikhailovsky's "Karl Marx Being Tried by Y. Zhukovsky," published in the magazine Otechestvenniye Zapiski (Fatherland Notes ), No. 10, October 1877. [p.135]
<"en29">[29] See Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, Preface to the first German edition, p. 10. [p.136]
<"en30">[30] The article referred to is K. Marx's A Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Law, written in Kreuznach in the summer of 1843. The Institute of Marxism-Leninism at the C.C. C.P.S.U. possesses the unfinished manuscript of this essay containing an exhaustive critical analysis of §§ 261-313 of Hegel's Principles of the Philosophy of Law. Marx intended to prepare for publication an extensive essay, A Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Law, following the appearance, of the Introduction to this work in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbucher (German-French Yearbooks) in 1844. He was, however, unable to carry out his intention. Marx's manuscript was published for the first time in the language of the original in 1927, by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. [p.138]
<"en31">[31] Lenin's quotation is from the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. (See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. I, Moscow, 1958, pp. 362-63.) [p.139]
<"en32">[32] Contrat Social -- one of the chief works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Its full title is Du contrat social; ou, Principcs du droit politique. (The Social Contract, or the Principles of Political Law.) It was published in Amsterdam in 1762 and translated into Russian in 1906. The main idea in the book was the assertion that every social system should be the result of a free agreement, of a contract between people. Fundamentally idealistic though it was, the "social contract" theory, advanced in the eighteenth century on the eve of the French bourgeois revolution, nevertheless played a revolutionary role. It expressed the demand for bourgeois equality, the abolition of the privileges of the feudal estates, and the estabiishment of a bourgeois republic. [p.139]
<"en33">[33] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 373. [p.146]
<"en34">[34] Letter from Karl Marx to the Editorial Board of "Otechestzenniye Zapiski" was written at the end of 1877 in connection with N. K. Mikhailovsky's article "Karl Marx Being Tried by Y. Zhukovsky." The letter was copied and sent to Russia by Engels after Marx's death. Engels stated that this letter "for a long time circulated in Russia in manuscript copies taken from the French original, and later a Russian translation of it was published in Vestnik Narodnoi Voli (People's Will Messenger ), (No. 5. --Ed.) in 1886, in Geneva and subsequently in Russia. This letter, like everything that
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came from Marx's pen aroused considerable attention in Russian circles." (Internatonales aus dem Volksstaat (1871-1875), Berlin 1894, S: 68.) It was first published in Russian in the magazine Yuridichesky Vestnik (The Legal Messenger ), No. 10, l888. (See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, pp. 376-79.) [p.146]
<"en35">[35] See F. Engels, Anti-Dühring, Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (Part II. Political Economy, Chapter One. Subject Matter and Method), Moscow, 1954, pp. 207-8. [p.146]
<"en36">[36] German Ideology was written jointly by Marx and Engels in the years 1845-1846.
The manuscript, amounting to nearly 800 printed pages, was in two volumes, the first of which was mainly devoted to an elaboration of the basic theses of historical materialism and to a criticism of the philosophical views of Ludwig Feuerbach, B. Bauer and M. Stirner, and the second, to a criticism of the views of various representatives of "true socialism."
In 1846-1847 Marx and Engels made repeated attempts to find a publisher in Germany who would issue their work. They were however, unsuccessful due to the obstacles raised by the police and because the publishers, themselves interested parties, were champions of the very trends combated by Marx and Engels and refused to handle it. Only one chapter appeared during the lifetime of Marx and Engels. That was Chapter IV, Volume II of German Ideology, which was published in the magazine Das Westphalische Dampfboot (Westphalean Steamer ), August and September 1847. The manuscript was pigeonholed for dozens of years in the archives of the German Social-Democratic Party. The German text was first published in full in 1932 by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C. C.P.S.U. A Russian translation appeared in 1933.
The characterisation of German Ideoloyy given by Engels is taken from the Preface to his Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy. (See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, Moscow, 1958, p. 359.) [p.147]<"en37">[37] See F. Engels, Preface to the first German edition of "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State." (K .Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, Moscow, 1958, p. 171.) [p.148]
<"en38">[38] The gentile, clan organisation of society. This was the system of primitive communism, or the first social-economic formation in human history. The clan system began to take shape when the modern type of man was fully formed. The clan community was a collective unit of blood relations united by economic and social ties. In its development, the clan system passed through two periods, matriarchy and patriarchy. Patriarchy came to an end when primitive society became class society and the state emerged. The basis of production relations in the primitive-communal system was the social ownership of the means of production and the equal distribution of products. In the main this corregponded to the low level of development of the productive forces, and to their character at that period. Stone implements, and later the bow and arrow, ruled
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out the possibitity of men combating natural forces and wild animals individually.
On the system of primitive communism, see K. Marx's Synopsis of L. H. Morgan's "Ancient Society" and F. Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. [p.150]<"en39">[39] The fief (pomestye ) system -- the specific system of feudal landownership that arose and became firmly established in Russia in the fifteenth, and particularly the sixteenth century. The fief system was closely bound up with the formation of a centralised state and the establishment of a centralised army. The fief lands, considered the property of the feudal ruler, were distributed by the government among those who served in the armed forces or at court. The amount of land received depended on the duties of the landholder. The fief, as distinct from the votchina, the absolute and hereditary landed property of the boyar, was the conditional and temporary property of a nobleman who had rendered these services.
From the middle of the sixteenth century the fief was gradually transformed into an hereditary estate, and increasingly approximated to the votchina. In the seventeenth century the difference between these two forms of feudal landownership disappeared, and the feudal rights of votchina and fief owners became identical. Following Peter I's ukase on inheritance issued in 1714 the fief once and for all became the private property of the landed nobility. The term fief (pomestye) continued to be used in Russia throughout the entire feudal epoch. [p.153]<"en40">[40] The First International -- The International Working Men's Association -- the first international organisation of the proletariat, founded by Karl Marx in 1864 at an international workers' conference in London convened by British and French workers. The First International was the result of years of hard work by Marx and Engels to establish a revolutionary working-class party. As V. I. Lenin noted, the First International "laid the foundation of an international organisation of the workers for the preparation of their revolutionary onslaught on capital," "laid the foundation of the proletarian, international struggle for socialism." (The Third International and Its Place in History. See present edition, Vol 29.)
The central directing body of. the First International was the General Council of the International Working Men's Association, of which Marx was a life member. Marx worked to overcome the petty-bourgeois influences and sectarian tendencies then prevailing in the working-class movement (craft unionism in Britain, and Proudhonism and Anarchism in the Romance countries) gathering round himself the most class-conscious members of The Ceneral Council (including F. Lessner, E. Dupont, and H. Jung) The First International directed the economic and politlcal struggle of the workers of different countries and strengthened the bonds of solidarity between them. It played a tremendous part in disseminating Marxism, in introducing socialism into the working-class movement.page 522
After the defeat of the Paris Commune the working class was faced with the task of organising national mass parties based on the principles advanced by the First International. ". . . As I view European conditions it is quite useful to let the formal organisation of the International recede into the background for the time being (K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, p. 348.) In 1876, at a conference held in Philadelphia, the First International was officially liquidated. [p.155]
<"en41">[41] Lenin used the name of V. Burenin a contributor to the reactionary paper Novoye Vremya (New Times ), as a synonym for dishonest methods of controversy. [p.156]
<"en42">[42] Novoye Vremya (New Times ) -- a daily paper that appeared in St. Petersburg from 1868 to 1917, it belonged to different publishers at different times and repeatedly changed its political line. At first it was moderately liberal but from 1876 it became the organ of reactionary circles among the aristocracy and the bureaucracy. From 1905 it became the organ of the Black Hundreds. After the bourgeois-democratic revolution of February 1917, it gave full support to the counter-revolutionary policy of the bourgeois Provisional Government and conducted a furious campaign against the Bolsheviks. On November 8 (October 26, old style), 1917, it was closed down by the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. Lenin called Novoye Vremya a typical example of the venal press.
In an item, "Critical Notes," published in Novoye Vremya of February 4, 1894, V. Burenin praised Mikhailovsky for flghting the Marxists. [p.158]<"en43">[43] The words are from I. A. Krylov's fable "The Elephant and the Pug-Dog." [p.159]
<"en44">[44] See F. Engels Preface to the first edition of "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State." (K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, Moscow, 1958, p. 170.) [p.161]
<"en45">[45] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 13. [p.161]
<"en46">[46] Reference is to the journal Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (German-French Yearbooks ) published in Paris under the editorship of K. Marx and A. Ruge in the German language. Only one issue, a double number, appeared in February 1844. The main reason why publication was discontinued, was Marx's differences in principle with the bourgeois radical Ruge. [p.162]
<"en47">[47] Triad (Greek, trias ) -- in philosophy it is the formula of three-stage development. The idea of three-stage development was first formulated by the Greek Neo-Platonic philosophers, particularly by Proclus, and was expressed in the works of the German idealist philosophers Fichte and Schelling. The triad was however, developed most fully in the idealist philosophy of Hegel, who considered that every process of development traverses three stages -- thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The second stage is the negation of the first, which transformed into its opposite by transition to the second stage. The third stage is the negation of the second, i.e., the nega-
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tion of the negation, which means a return to the form exiting at the outset that is now enriched by a new content and is on a higber level. Hegel's triad is a scheme into which reality was fitted artificially; the arbitrary construction of the triad scheme distorted the real development of nature and society. K. Marx, F. Engels and V. I. Lenin had a high opinion of the rational elements in Hegel's dialectics, but they critically refashioned his dialectical method and created materialist dialectics, which reflect the most general laws of the development of the objective world and human thought. [p.163]
<"en48">[48] See F. Engels. Anti-Dühring (First Part. Philosophy. Chapter Thirteen. Dialectics. Negation of the Negation). [p.163]
<"en49">[49] A systematic exposition and further development of the Marxist dialectical method is given in V. I. Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, Philosophical Notebooks, Karl Marx, etc. [p.165]
<"en50">[50] The author of the article (I. K.-n) was Professor I. I. Kaufman of St. Petersburg University. In Marx's view, the article was one of the best expositions of the dialectical method. (See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959. Afterword to the second edition pp. 17-19.) [p.166]
<"en51">[51] Further on in the text (on pages 168-73 of the present volume) V. I. Lenin cites an extract from F. Engels' Anti-Dühring (Part One. Philosophy. Chapter Thirteen. Dialectics. Negation of the Negation). [p.168]
<"en52">[52] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 78. [p.171]
<"en53">[53] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 761-63. [p.171]
<"en54">[54] Reference is made to the Afterword to the second edition of Volume I of K. Marx's Capital. [p.174]
<"en55">[55] Oechestvenniye Zapiski (Fatherland Notes ) -- a literary-polit ical magazine that began publication in St. Petersburg in 1820. From 1839 it became the best progressive publication of its day. Among its contributors were V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, T. N. Granovsky, and N. P. Ogaryov. Following Belinsky's departure from the editorial board in 1846, Otechestvenniye Zapiski began to lose its signiflcance. In 1868 the magazine came under the direction of N . A . Nekrasov and M. Y . Saltykov-Shchedrin. This marked the onset of a period in which the magazine flourished anew, gathering around itself the revolutionary-democratic intellectuals of Russia. When Nekrasov died (in 1877), the Narodniks gained dominant influence in the magazine.
The Otechestvenniye Zapiski was continually harassed by the censors, and in April 1884 was closed down by the tsarist government. [p.175]<"en56">[56] Postoronny (Outsider ) -- pen-name of N. K. Mikhailovsky. [p.175]
<"en57">[57] Reference is made to the followiny theses formulated by Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party:
"The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no waypage 524
based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered by this or that would-be universal reformer.
"They merely express, ingeneral terms, actual relations spring ing from aD existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes." (See K. Marx and F. Engels, "Manifesto of the Communist Party," Selected Works, Vol. I, Moscow, 1958, p. 46.) [p.178]<"en58">[58] See F. Engels. Anti-Dühring (Part One. Philosophy. Chapter Nine. Morality aud Law. Eternal Truths), Moscow, 1959, p. 130. [p.179]
<"en59">[59] Reference is made to N. K. Mikhailovsky's articles "About the Russian Edition of Karl Marx's Book" (Otechestvenniye Zapiski, No. 4, April 1872), and "Karl Marx Being Tried by Y. Zhukovsky" (Otechestvenniye Zapiski, No. 10, October 1877). [p.181]
<"en60">[60] Lenin quotes from K. Marx's letter to A. Ruge (dated September 1843). [p.185]
<"en61">[61] Lenin refers to S. N. Yuzhakov, whose political and economic views he criticised more particularly in the second part of What the "Friends of the People" Are. Neither the manuscript, nor a copy of the hectographed edition of the second part of this book has been found. [p.185]
<"en62">[62] Reference is made to the Emancipation of Labour group, the first Russian Marxist group, founded by G. V. Plekhanov in Geneva in 1883. Apart from Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, L. G. Deutsch, V. I. Zasulich, and V. N. Ignatov belonged to the group.
The Emancipation of Labour group played a great part in disseminating Marxism in Russia. The group translated into Russian, published abroad and distributed in Russia the works of the founders of Marxism: Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engels; Wage-Labour and Capital by Marx; Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels, etc. Plekhanov and his group dealt a severe blow to Narodism. In 1883 and 1885 Plekhanov wrote two drafts of a programme for Russian Social-Democrats, which were published by the Emancipation of Labour group. This was an important step forward in preparing the ground for, and in the establishment of, a Social-Democratic Party in Russia. An important part in spreading Marxist views in Russia was played by Plekhanov's essays: Socialism and the Political Struggle (1883), Our Differences (1885) and The Development of the Monist View of History (1895). The Emancipation of Labour group, however, committed serious errors; they clung to remnants of the views of the Narodniks, underestimated the revolutionary capacity of the peasantry, and over estimated the role of the liberal bourgeoisie. These errors were the embryo of the future Menshevik views held by Plekhanov and other members of the group. The Emancipation of Labour group had no practical ties with the working-class movement. V. I. Lenin pointed out that the Emancipation of Labour group "only theoretically founded the Social-Democracy and took the first step in the direction of the working-class movement." (The Ideological Struggle in the Working-Class Movement. See present edition, Vol. 20.)page 525
At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. held in August 1903 the Emancipation of Labour group announced that it had ceased its activity as a group. [p.193]
<"en63">[63] Narodovolism, the tenets of the Narodovoltsi -- members of the secret Narodnik terrorist political organisation Narodnaya Volya (People's Will ) which arose in August 1879, following the split in the secret society Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberly). The Narodnaya Volya was headed by an Executive Committee which included A. I. Zhelyabov, A. D. Mikhailov, M. F. Frolenko, N. A. Morozov, V. N. Figner, S. L. Perovskaya, A. A. Kvyatkovsky. The immediate object of the Narodnaya Volya was the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, while their programme provided for the organisation of a "permanent popular representative body" elected on the basis of universal suffrage, the proclamation of democratic liberties, the land to be given to the people; and the elaboration of measures for factories to pass into the hands of the workers. The Narodovoltsi were unable, however, to find the road to the masses of the people and took to political conspiracy and individual terror. The terroristic struggle of the Narodovoltsi was not supported by a mass revolutionary movement, and enabled the government to crush the organisation by resorting to fierce persecution, death sentences and provocation.
After 1881 the Narodnaya Volya fell to pieces. Repeated attempts to revive it during the 1880s ended in failure -- for example, the terrorist group organised in 1886, headed by A. I. Ulyanov (V. I. Lenin's brother) and P. Y. Shevyryov, which shared these traditions. After an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Alexandcr III, the group was exposed, and its active members executed.
While he criticised the erroneous, utopian programme of the Narodovoltsi, Lenin expressed great respect for the selfless struggle waged by its members against tsarism. In 1899, in the "Protest by Russian Social-Democrats," he pointed out that "the representatives of the old Narodnaya Volya managed to play an enormous role in the history of Russia despite the fact that only narrow social strata supported the few heroes, and despite the fact that it was by no means a revolutionary theory that served as the banner of the movement." ("A Protest by Russian Social-Democrats." See present edition, Vol. 4.) [p.198]<"en64">[64] Publisher's Note -- the Afterword to the first edition of the first part of V. I. Lenin's What the "Friends of the People" Are and How They Fight the Social-Democrats. [p.201]
<"en65">[65] Note to the present edition -- Afterword to the second edition of the first part of What the "Friends of the People" Are written in July 1894. [p.202]
<"en66">[66] Yuridichesky Vestnik (The Legal Messenger ) -- a monthly magazine, bourgeois-liberal in trend, published in Moscow from 1867 to 1892. [p.206]
<"en67">[67] The Manifesto abolishing serfdom in Russia signed by Tsar Alexander II on February 19, 1861. [p.219]
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<"en68">[68] The data for several uyezds, dealing with the differentiation of the peasantry, mentioned by V. I. Lenin, were included in the second part (not yet found) of What the "Friends of the People" Are.
In his Development of Capitalism in Russia, Lenin deals with this problem in detail particularly in the second cbapter: "The Differentiation of the Peasantry." [p.224]<"en69">[69] State peasants with quarter holdings -- the name given in tsarist Russia to the category of former state peasants, descendants of lower-rank servicemen who in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries were settled in the border lands of the state of Muscovy. For their services in guarding the state frontiers the settlers (Cossacks, musketeers, soldiers) were given the usufruct of small plots of land either temporarily or in perpetuity. The area of such a plot amounted to a so-called quarter [11.35 acres]. From the year 1719 such settlers were called odnodvortsi [i.e., those possessing only their own farm steads]. Formerly they enjoyed various kinds of privileges and had the right to own peasants, but during the course of the nineteenth century were gradually deprived of these rights and reduced to the status of ordinary peasants. By a regulation of the year 1876 the quarter lots were recognised as the private property of the former odnodvortsi (quarter-lot peasants) and their descendants. [p.226]
<"en70">[70] Here and in other parts of the present volume, V. I. Lenin quotes from I. A. Hourwich's The Economics of the Russian Village, published in New York in 1892. A Russian translation of this book appeared in 1896. Lenin had a high opinion of Hourwich's book which contains valuable factual material. [p.227]
<"en71">[71] Kolupayev and Derunov -- types of capitalist sharks portrayed in the works of the Russian satirist M. Y. Saltykov-Shchedrin. [p.230]
<"en72">[72] V. I. Lenin quotes from Karl Marx's A Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Law. (See Marx-Engels, Gesamtausgabe, Bd. I, Abt. 1, Erster Halbband, S. 608 2 bas.) [p.236]
<"en73">[73] From "To the Sowers" by the Russian poet N. A. Nekrasov. [p.255]
<"en74">[74] The Gladstone Land Bills -- the land laws adopted in Britain by Gladstone's Liberal Ministry in the 1870s and 1880s. With a view to mitigating the struggle between the tenant farmers and the landlords and to securing the votes of the former, the Gladstone government introduced some minor measures limiting the tyranny of the landlords, who had driven masses of tenants off the land. The government also promised to regulate the question of tenants' arrears, to set up special land courts that would establish "fair" rents, etc. The Gladstone Land Bills were typical of the social demagogy of the liberal bourgeoisie. [p.258]
<"en75">[75] In 1889, the tsarist government, desirous of strengthening the landlords' power over the peasants, introduced the administrative post of Zemsky Nachalnik. The Zemsky Nachalniks, who were appointed from among the local landlord nobility, were given tremendous powers both administrative and juridical to deal with the peasants.
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These powers included the right to arrest peasants and administer corporal punishment. [p.262]
<"en76">[76] Nedelya (Week ) -- a liberal-Narodnik political and literary newspaper. Appeared in St. Petersburg from 1866 to 1901. Was opposed to fighting the autocracy, and advocated the so-called theory of "minor matters," i.e., appealed to the intelligentsia to abstain from revolutionary struggle and to engage in "cultural activity." [p.263]
<"en77">[77] This refers to French utopian socialism, which was widespread at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was one of the main ideological trends of the time.
The social-economic basis to wllich French utopian socialism owed its origin was the increased exploitation of the toiling masses, the appearance of irreconcilable contradictions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The most prominent representatives of French utopian socialism were Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier whose views were widely held not only in France, but also in other countries. The French utopian socialists were, however, unable to expose the essence of capitalist relations and capitalist exploitation with consistency or to discover the basic contradiction of the capitalist mode of production. In conformity with the utopian character of their social and political ideals, they based the need for the socialist reorganisation of society on the need for reason to conquer ignorance, for truth to conquer falsehood. The immaturity of their views is to be explained by the social conditions of the epoch, by the insufficient development of large-scale capitalist industry, and of the industrial proletariat. For a more detailed account of French socialism, see F. Engels' Socialism: Utoplan and Scientific and Anti-Dühring. Lenin described the teachings of the French utopian socialists, in connection with French revolutionary teachings in general, as one of the mainsprings of Marxism.
The Russian revolutionary democrats A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinsky, N. G. Chernyshevsky, and N. A. Dobrolyubov accepted the ideas of the French Enlighteners, but differed from the representatives of many West-European trends of utopian socialism in advocating the idea of mass struggle to overthrow the autocracy, the idea of a peasant revolution. However, they mistakenly imagined that the path to socialism lay through the semi-feudal peasant community. Since Russia's economic development was still weak the Russian revolutionary democrats, headed by Chernyshevsky, were unable to show the decisive role of the working class in the building of socialist society. [p.263]<"en78">[78] This refers to V. V.'s (V. P. Vorontsov's) Our Trends, which appeared in 1893. [p.264]
<"en79">[79] N. K. Mikhailovsky replied to V. V. in the article "Literature and Life" published in Russkoye Bogatstvo, issue No. 10, 1893. [p.264]
<"en80">[80] The Bakuninists and the rebels -- supporters and followers of M. A. Bakunin (1814-1876), the ideologist of anarchism and a bitter enemy of Marxism and scientific socialism. The Bakuninists carried
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on a stubborn struggle against the Marxist theory and tactics of the working-class movement. The main plank of the Bakuninist platform was the complete rejection of any form of state, including the dictatorship of the proletariat. They did not understand the epoch-making role of the prolelariat. Bakunin put forward the idea of the "levelling" of classes, the organisation of "free associations" from below. In the Bakuninists' view, a secret revolutionary society, made up of "outstanding" individuals, was to direct popular revolts, which were to take place immediately. Thus the Bakuninists believed that the peasantry in Russia were ready to rise up in rebellion without delay.Their tactics of conspiracy-making, of hasty revolts and of terrorism were adventurist and hostile to Marxist teachings on insurrection. Bakuninism was close to Proudhonism, the petty-bourgeois trend that reflected the ideology of the ruined petty proprietor. One of the Bakuninists in Russia, S. G Nechayev, was in close contact with Bakunin, who lived abroad. The Bakuninists expounded the programme of the conspiratorial society in thc "Revolutionary Catechism." In 1869 Nechayev tried to found a narrow conspiratorial "People's Reprisal" organisation in Russia. He succeeded, however in organising only a few circles in Moscow. "The People's Reprisal" was soon exposed, and in December 1869 was broken up by the tsarist government. The theory and tactics of the Bakuninists were severely condemned by Marx and Engels. Lenin described Bakuninism as the world outlook "of the petty bourgeois who despairs of his salvation." (In Memory of Herzen. See present edition, Vol. 18.) Bakuninism was one of the ideological sources of Narodism. [p.264]
<"en81">[81] A central representative assembly is referred to. In 1873 Marx and Engels wrote the following on this subject: "At that time the demand was raised for the convention of a Zemsky Sobor. Some demanded it with a view to settling financial difficulties, others -- so as to end the monarchy. Bakunin wanted it to demonstrate Russia's unity and to consolidate the tsar's power and might." (L'allian ce de la Démocratie Socialiste et l'association Internationale des travailleurs. Rapport et documents publiés par ordre du congrès international de la Haye. 1873. p. 113.)
Many Russian revolutionaries equated the convocation of a Zemsky Sobor with the overthrow of the tsarist dynasty.
The convocation of a Zemsky Sobor representing all citizens to draw up a constitution was one of the programmatic demands of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. [p.264]<"en82">[82] Reference is made to N. G. Chernyshevsky and A. I. Herzen. See Marx's letter to the editorial board of Otechestvenniye Zapiski (K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, p 377) [p.266]
<"en83">[83] See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Correspondence, Moscow, pp. 378-79. [p.266]
<"en84">[84] Soziaipolitisches Centralblatt (Central Social Political Sheet ) -- organ of the Right wing of German Social-Democracy. First appeared in 1892. [p.272]
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<"en85">[85] Pobedonostsev, R. P. -- Procurator General of the Synod, an extreme reactionary who inspired the feudal policy of Alexander III. [p.273]
<"en86">[86] Lenin refers to the venal press -- newspapers and magazines that were in the pay of the tsarist government and fawned on it. [p.274]
<"en87">[87] Yermolov, A. S. -- Minister of Agriculture and State Properties in 1893-1905; he voiced the interests of the feudal landlords and his policy was one of retaining the relics of serfdom.
Witte, S. Y. -- an influential Minister in tsarist Russia, was for many years (1892-1903) Minisler of Finance. The measures he adopted in the sphere of finance, customs policy, railway construction etc., were in the interests of the big bourgeoisie and promoted the development of capitalism in Russia. [p.275]<"en88">[88] Lenin refers to the Group of Narodnik Socialists, Russian revolutionary émigrés headed by N. I. Utin, A. D. Trusov, and V. I. Bartenev. This group published the magazine Narodnoye Dyelo (People's Cause ) in Geneva. At the beginnlng of 1870 it set up the Russian section of the International Workingmen's Association (First International). On March 22 1870, the Ceneral Council of the International accepted the affliiation of the Russian section. At the section's request, Marx undertook to serve as its representative on the Ceneral Council. "I gladly accept the honourable duty that you offer me, that of your representative on the Ceneral Council," wrote Marx on March 24, 1870, to the members of Ihe Committee of the Russian section (Marx-Engels Ausgewahlte Briefe, M.-L. 1934, S. 234). The members of the Russian section of the First International supported Marx in his struggle against the Bakuninist anarchists, propagated the revolutionary ideas of the Internalional, did what they could to strengthen the ties between the Russian revolulionary movement and the West-European, and took part in the working-class movements of Switzerland and France. However the members of the Russian section were not consistent Marxists their views still contained much of Narodnik utopianism, speciflcally they idealised the village community, calling it "a great achievement of the Russian people." The section failed to establish close ties with the revolutionary movement in Russia, which, in the flnal analysis, was the main reason for its collapse in 1872. [p.278]
<"en89">[89] Engelhardt, A. N. -- a Narodnik publicist, who became widely known for his social and agronomic activities and his experiment in organising rational farming on his own estate in Batishchevo, Smolensk Gubernia. A description of the farming methods is given by Lenin in his Development of Capitalism in Russia (See present edition, Vol. 3, Chapter 3). [p.280]
<"en90">[90] Sotsial-Demokrat (Social-Democrat ) -- a literary political review published abroad (London-Geneva) by the Emancipation of Labour group in 1890-1892. It played a great part in spreading Marxist ideas in Russia. In all, four issues appeared. The leading contributors to the magazine were G. V. Plekhanov P. B. Axelrod and V. I. Zasulich.
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Lenin here quotes Plekhanov's article "N. G. Chernyshevsky" (See Sotsial-Demokrat, No. 1, 1890, pp. 138-39). [p.281]
<"en91">[91] From N. G. Chernyshevsky's novel Prologue. [p.282]
<"en92">[92] See Note 8. [Transcriber's insert of note 8: The Peasant Reform of 1861, which abolished serfdom in Russia, was effected by the tsarist government in the interests of the serf-owning landlords. The Reform was made necessary by the entire course of Russia's economic development and by the growth of a mass movement among the peasantry against feudal exploitation. The "peasant Reform" was feudal in character, but by force of the economic development that had drawn Russia on to the capitalist path the feudal form was given a capitalist content, and "this was the more evident the less the land was filched from the peasants the more fully the land of the peasants was separated from that of the landlords, the less the tribute (i.e., "redemption") paid to the serf owners." (See present edition, Vol. 17, The "Peasant Reform" and Proletarian-Peasant Revolution.) The "peasant Reform" marked a step towards Russia's transformation into a bourgeois monarchy. On February 19, 1861, Alexander II signed a Manifesto and "Regulations" for the peasants, who were being released from serf dependence. In all, 22,500,000 serfs, formerly belonging to landlords, were "emancipated." Landed proprietorship, however, remained, the peasants' lands were declared the property of the landlords and the peasant could only get a land allotment of the size established by law (and even then by agreement with the landlord) for which he had to pay (redeem). The peasants made their redemption payments to the tsarist government, which had paid the established sums to the landlords. Approximate estimates show that after the Reform, the nobility possessed 71,500,000 dessiatines of land and the peasants 33,700,000 dessiatines. Thanks to the Reform the landlords cut off and appropriated from one to two-fifths of the lands formerly cultivated by the peasants.
The Reform merely undermined but did not abolish the old corvée system of farming. The landlords secured possession of the best parts of the peasants' allotments (the "cut-off lands," woods, meadows, watering-places, grazing grounds, and so on), without which the peasants could not engage in independent farming. Until the redemption arrangements were completed the peasants were considered to be "temporarily bound," and rendered services to the landlord in the shape of quitrent and corvée service. To compel the peasants to redeem their own allotments was sheer plunder on the part of the landlords and the tsarist government. The peasants were given a period of 49 years in which to pay off the debt, with an interest of 6% . Arrears grew from year to year. The former landlords' peasants alone paid the tsarist government a total of 1,900 million rubles in redemption money, whereas the market price of the land that passed into their possession did not exceed 544 million rubles. The peasants had to pay hundreds of millions of rubles for what was actually their own land, this ruined their farms and resulted in the impoverishment of the peasant masses.
The Russian revolutionary democrats, headed by N. G. Chernyshevsky, criticised the "peasant Reform" for its feudal character. [cont. onto p. 515.] V. I. Lenin called the "peasant Reform" of 1861 the first mass act of violence against the peasantry in the interests of nascent capitalism in agriculture -- the landlords were "clearing the estates" for capitalism.] [p.289]<"en93">[93] Lenin refers to Judas Golovlyov -- a sanctimonious, hypocritical landlold serf owner described in M. Saltykov-Shchedrin's The Golovlyov Family. [p.291]
<"en94">[94] Lenin uses as an epithet the name Arakcheyev -- the brutal favourite of tsars Paul I and Alexander I; a period of reactionary police despotism and gross domination of the military is connected with his activities. A characteristic feature of the Arakcheyev regime was the brutal measures employed against the revolutionary movement of the oppressed masses and against any manifestation of liberty. [p.291]
<"en95">[95] Lenin refers to the Narodnoye Pravo (People's Right) party, an illegal organisation of the Russian democratic intelligentsia founded in the summer of 1893. Among the founders were such former Narodovoltsi as O. V. Aptekman, A. I. Bogdanovich, A. V. Gedeonovsky, M. A. Natanson and N. S. Tyutchev. The members of the Narodnoye Pravo set themselves the aim of uniting all opposition forces, with a view to conducting a struggle for political reform. The Narodnoye Pravo party issued two programme documents, a "Manifesto" and "An Urgent Issue." In the spring of 1894 the party was broken up by the tsarist government. For Lenin's assessment of Narodnoye Pravo as a political party see pages 329-32 of the present volume, and also the pamphlet The Tasks of the Russian Social-Democrats (Vol. 2). The majority of the Narodnoye Pravo members subsequently joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. [p.292]
<"en96">[96] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 763. [p.310]
<"en97">[97] Lenin quotes from I. A. Krylov's fable "The Cat and the Cook." [p.311]
<"en98">[98] Here and further on Lenin quotes from the Preface to the second edition of F. Engels' The Housing Question. (See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. I, Moscow, 1958, pp 550, 554-55) [p.317]
<"en99">[99] See K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 446. [p.318]
<"en100">[100] Lenin refers to the principles expressed by Marx in the second chapter of The Poverty of Philosophy, an essay directed against Proudhon. (See K. Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, Moscow, pp. 140-41.) [p.319]
<"en101">[101] Lenin quotes from Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme. (See K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works, Vol. II, Moscow, 1958, p. 31.) [p.319]
<"en102">[102] Manilovism -- derived from the name of Manilov, one of the characters in N. V. Gogol's Dead Souls. Manilov is a sentimental, "high-souled" landlord in whom Gogol has embodied the typical
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features of the weak-willed dreamer, empty visionary, and inert tattler. Lenin uses the name Manilov as an epithet to describe the liberal Narodniks. [p.322]
<"en103">[103] See Afterword to the second edition of Volume One of Marx's Capital (K. Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1959, p. 20). [p.327]
<"en104">[104] Lenin quotes from Marx's letter to Ruge (dated September 1843). Fuller quotations from this letter will be found on pages 184-85 of this volume. [p.328]