Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution
Side by side with these positive results of Russian agricultural co-operation let us mention here the projects of certain reformers. Now that the Revolution is going apparently to take up the distribution of land—or a large portion of the land among the peasants, the problem of cultivation on a large scale comes before us in an entirely new aspect. It had yielded up to the present decisive results: the large properties unquestionably produced more than the peasant holdings, and it is due to them especially that the exportation of cereals had such a real development. Will it be necessary to give this up, to the great detriment of agricultural output, or else limit it to the large properties exempt from expropriation, or on the contrary give peasant ownership up altogether, for the sake of efficiency in the agricultural output? It would seem that there is no democratic and satisfactory solution of this difficulty other than that of co-operative cultivation, extensive cultivation passing from private hands to those of the associations, as was the case with the butter factories. But
100
