Lenin: 1916/ni-beta: HILDEBRAND, THE SHATTERING, ETC. (original) (raw)

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

NOTEBOOK “β”

(“BETA”)

HILDEBRAND, THE SHATTERING, ETC.

Gerhard Hildebrand, The Shattering of Industrial Domination and Industrial Socialism, 1910 (Jena).

A summary (mostly a random selection) of figures on the “increased industrial independence of peasant countries” (p. 88)—“the industrial self-development of hitherto peasant countries” (138)....

§11. “The Chinese danger”.... By 1920-25 the Chinese will have gone such a long way, etc., etc.

...“The industrial monopoly of the West-European sphere of civilisation is doomed”... (203).

| p. 207. The question amounts to this: will theproletariat in the industrial countries be able “toreplace or retain the vanishing peasant basis of foodand clothing”?“The answer to the clear-cut question must bea downright, clear, remorseless _No!_” (207). | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | |

209: It is impossible to obtain (in Europe) 200 million sheep
15-20 million bales of cotton, etc.

“There is no point in it (the proletariat) wanting to expropriate the capitalists, for the industrial means of production are no longer utilisable” (210), and it will not be able to go over to agriculture (211)....

| “The possibility is thus excluded of a democratic | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | - | | socialism in the sense of a uniform, tightly-knitregulation of production as a whole by the mass of thepeople who possess nothing and rule everything.... Much more probable than the domination of peasantproduction by an industrial democracy is the domi-nation of industrial production by a peasant democ-racy” (213). | | | ! | | | | | | | | ! | | | |

“However, the realisation of democratic socialism through an industrial democracy is absolutely ruled out if we accept:

| “1. that peasant economy holds sway in the mostimportant spheres of organic production;“2. that the peasant masses hold fast to the privatebasis of production;“3. that the peasant countries naturally endeavourto draw into their sphere the greatest possible shareof industrial production;“4. that, under the prevailing conditions of inter-national competition, especially with the Chinesequarter of mankind drawn into the nexus of worldeconomy, and with the conversion of other hithertoagrarian countries into industrial states, they canquite freely dispose of their industrial incomes whichhave already been monopolised not by them (215); | | ?? | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | -- |

“5. that, on the other hand, the industrial states are to a growing extent dependent on foreign peasant bases for their supplies of food and clothing raw materials” (216)....

| | ...“The unfortunate thing is that the industriali-sation of the East, following the penetration ofWestern technical culture, can proceed much fasterthan the agrarianisation of the West, with itsindustrial over-tension and, it can be safely said,its industrial degeneration” (219).... | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | !?! | | | | | | |

“Agrarian educational colonies” (224)—“a peasant internal colonisation” (225)—those are the “means” proposed by the author.

| !!! | | | Conclusion (i.e., last chapter): “_UnitedStates of Western Europe_” (229)....[1] | | --- | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

The African peoples require “guidance and care” “for an indefinite time to come” (232).... In 20-30 years it will be difficult even for Russia + Great Britain + France “to oppose a Chinese-Japanese coalition” (231)....

| !! | | | there is the possibility of a “great Islamic move-ment” in Africa, which will be “simultaneouslyboth revolutionary and reactionary” (233).“To prevent” (p. 233 in fine) such a movement—is in the “vital interest” of Western Europe.234—“Consequently” “joint action in Africa byall the West-European states” is essential.234—It is hopeless to expect Russia(+Japan, China and the United States) to joinin agreements (on disarmament and so forth)—the West-European nations must unite.235: We must “slow up” (verlangsamen) “thetempo of capital formation in Western Europe”...“moderate” the “industrial tempo”... “strengthenthe peasant basis” ... a customs union ... pro-gressive taxation, etc....236——an import duty on grain is needed, buta “moderate” one.238—a democratic union of workers (down with“_Communist utopias_”) and peasants (238). | | ---------- | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | !!!! | | | | | | | | | | sic!! | | | | | sic!!!N.B. | | | | | ! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| | | 239—“as a matter of course”, a “United States ofWestern Europe” will need a strong army and navy. | | | | | - | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | |

| 240—Britain will prefer to join rather thanremain in “imperialist isolation”.... | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | |

Notes

[1] See present edition, Vol. 22, p. 281.—Ed.