Preliminary Draft Theses on the Agrarian Question—For the Second Congress of The Communist International

It was the second document which was drawn up by Lenin for the second congress of the Communist International. Written in early June 20. The outline was first published in the 12th issue of the Communist International on July 20,1920. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 39 of the second edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

At the beginning of June 1920, Lenin read the article “The Agrarian Question and World Revolution” written by Marchlewski, and thought that the author of the article set forth the theoretical fundamentals of the Third International’s communist agrarian program.

On June 8, Lenin sent a letter to the head of Central Bureau of Statistics, asking him to mail a compilation of statistical surveys from the German and Austrian agricultural offices. Lenin collected a great deal of information for drafting the outline. The outline is divided into nine parts. By analyzing the composition and characteristics of each class in the countryside, Lenin elaborated in detail that different land policies should be adopted for different classes, comprehensively expounded the state’s attitude towards various classes and land issues in the countryside under the leadership of the proletariat and the basis for formulating agrarian policies. The main ideas in this draft include the following:

First of all, in the Theses, Lenin put forward that the close alliance between the working class and the peasants reflects the fundamental interest of the two classes, because their common enemy is capitalism. Only by forming an alliance with the proletariat and wholeheartedly supporting the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat to overthrow the oppression of the landlords and capitalists can the rural working masses be liberated from exploitation. If industrial workers are confined to their narrow craft, or trade interests, they cannot accomplish their epoch-making mission of emancipating mankind from the yoke of capital and from wars.

Secondly, Lenin pointed out that the urban proletariat should guide the exploited working people to participate in the struggle, and mainly analyzed the class structure of the exploited working people in the countryside. The first is the agricultural proletariat, who obtain their livelihood by working for hire at capitalist agricultural enterprises. “It is the basic task of the Communist parties of all countries to win their support for the Soviets and the dictatorship of the proletariat.” The second is semi proletarian or small-scale land farmers, who get part of their livelihood by selling their labor force in capitalist enterprises and partly by farming on private or rented small-scale land. Lenin pointed out that such peasants would become reliable supporters when the Communist Party worked properly. The third class is small farmers, who have a piece of land that can meet the needs of the whole family without buying labor. This class can benefit from the victory of the proletariat. Therefore, although they are corrupted by profiteering and the habit of private ownership, as long as the proletariat resolutely suppresses the large landholders and the rich peasants, the small peasant class will stand on the side of the proletariat. Only after the proletariat seizes power, leads and protects them, and points out the right way for them, can these rural exploited classes firmly support the proletariat.

Thirdly, Lenin focused on the analysis of the land policy towards the middle peasants, large peasants and landlords. Lenin pointed out that the middle peasants are small-scale farmers economically. The proletariat should not immediately abolish private ownership completely at the beginning of the dictatorship. It should neutralize the middle peasants and ensure that the small peasants and the middle peasants retain their original land. The big peasants are capitalist entrepreneurs in agriculture and belong to exploiters. The Communist Party should concentrate its main attention on fighting against this class, disarm it, and resolutely crack down on its resistance. But the proletariat, because it does not have the conditions, cannot directly deprive the peasants of their land. Instead, it should retain the land of the peasants and confiscate it only when they resist the regime. In dealing with the landlord class, the revolutionary proletariat should confiscate its land immediately and unconditionally, without compensation and without publicity. As for the land confiscated from the landlords, Lenin argued that it should be mainly distributed to the peasants and, in a few cases, kept as “state farms” operated by the state.

Finally, Lenin pointed out that the Communist parties of all countries should intensify the mass strike of the agricultural proletarians and the semi proletarians because the agricultural working people are blocked, scattered and dependent. Only in this way can we awaken the consciousness of the exploited people in the countryside and make them realize the importance of the alliance of workers in the same region. The Communist Party also needs to establish Soviet assemblies by promoting the establishment of the Communist Party branches in the countryside as soon as possible, thus consolidate the Soviet regime.

“Preliminary Draft Theses on the Agrarian Question” analyzed in detail the differences among different classes in the countryside, proposed that the dictatorship of the proletariat should formulate different rural policies and land policies according to different classes, and pointed out the necessity of strengthening the alliance between the exploited classes and workers in the countryside and establishing the Peasants’ Soviets in the countryside. All these laid the foundation for the development of Lenin’s ideas on peasant-agrarian question, and greatly enriched the Marxist theory of land-peasant issue.