The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-10-26

omy. This demands a number of
measures in respect to small peasant
undertakings such as will even
tually assure the development of
large-scale Socialist production in
agriculture also. Both Marx and
Engels alluded to this, and it was
on this theory that Lenin based his
plan for the cooperative develop
ment Of rural economy.
"The proletariat," wrote Marx,
'as the government, should under
take measures, the result of which
win be that the position of the peas
ant will directly improve and that
he will himself go over to the side
Of Revolution. These measures will
contain the embryo of the transition
from private landed proprietorship
to collective ownership; they will
facilitate this transition in such
way that the peasant will himself
arrive at this by economic means"
(Annals of Marxism H., p. 9S.)
Engels makes a similar observa-
ton: Our task in relation to the
small peasants" wrote Engels, "is
above all to turn their private pro-
ductio nand private property into
COLLECTIVELY, but this should be done,
not by force, but by means of ex-
ample, and the application of public
aid for this purpose"
ave shall do everything possible"
wrote Engels, further on, "to make it
more tolerable for the small peasant
to live, to facilitate his transition to
COLLECTIVELY. E" "The material
losses which in this respect will
have to be borne in the interests of
the peasants, might seem, from the
viewpoint of capitalist economies, to
be wasted money. But actually this
will constitute an excellent invest
ment of capital because such losses
will save perhaps ten times larger
sums in the expenditure on social
reconstruction as a whole. Conse-
quently, in this respect we can af-
ford to be more generous to the
peasants" (The Peasant Question
in Germany and France.)
This teaching by the founders of
revolutionary Marxism as to the lines
Of development of small peasant
economy after the seizure Of power
by the proletariat was brilliantly ex-
tended by Lenin in the cooperative
plan for the development of rural
economy. Lenin continually en-
.phasized that when the proletarian
revolution takes place in a country
where the proletariat is in the min
GRITTY, where there is petty bour-
geois production, the role of the pro-
letariat in such a country consists
in directing the transition of these
small undertakings to socialized
collective labor" Collected Works,
Vol. XVIII, part l., p. 11S. Russian
Edition.)
The October Revolution in the
U.S.S.R. in vanquishing the land
owners and bourgeoisie gave ire
mendous squirt. to the initiative of
the masses in developing forms of
Socialist construction. The poor and
middle peasant sections Of the
Soviet countryside have widely ex-
tended the construction of collective
farms-the Socialist form of col
lective production in agriculture.
The first collective farms to a
large extent started as "communes,"
ie., large-scale enterprises with
common means of production, COM
mon labor and equal distribution.
The revolutionary enthusiasm of the
first years of the Revolution led the
constructors of socialized agriculture
to create Socialist enterprises of a
more consistent type. But this form
collective farms) demands from the
small peasant radical changes in the
forms and conditions of the produc-
ton and the conditions of living to
which he is accustomed. For this
reason, side by side with the Com
munes, and considerably exceeding
them in number of other forms of
a similar type, such as artels, socie-
ties for joint cultivation of the land,
sowing associations, etc. The great
variety of forms promoted directly
by the builders of arge-scale produc-
ton in the countryside bears witness
to the great activity of these Sec
tions in their fight for new produc-
tive and social relations in the Sow
let rural areas.
The Fifteenth Party Congress took
place at the time of the change from
the restoratory to the reconstruction
period in the national economy of
the U.S.S.R. Soviet industry had
entered this stage slightly earlier
than agriculture. The latter, how
ever, could not considerably lag be-
hind the reconstruction processes in
other branches of national economy.
Whereas in capitalist countries the
development of capitalist industry
intensifies the contradictions be-
tween town and country, under con-
ditions of proletarian dictatorship
one Of the main tasks Of the regime
is to do away with the opposed posi-
ton of industry and agriculture.
This task cannot leave the proletar-
lat Indifferent to the lines of devel-