* Author's italics.
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Russia." Everybody knows that, compared with any West European country, the number of "all sorts of artels" is incredibly, phenomenally small in Russia. . . . "Everybody knows this" . . . except the dreamy Manilov. The editors of Russkiye Vedomosti, for example, know it since they published above Mr. N. Levitsky's article a very interesting and highly informative item, entitled "Syndicates in France." From this article Mr. N. Levitsky might have learned how immensely "all sorts of artels" are developed in capitalist France (compared with non-capitalist Russia). I underline "all sorts," for it can easily be seen from this article that there are four sorts of syndicates in France: 1) workers' syndicates (2,163 syndicates with 419,172 members); 2) employers' syndicates (1,622 with 130,752 members); 3) agricultural syndicates (1,188 with 398,048 members) and 4) mixed syndicates (173 with 31,126 members). Add up all these figures, Mr. Kevitsky! You will get a total of nearly a million people (979,000) organised in "all sorts of artels." And now tell us, with your hand on your heart, are you really not ashamed of the phrase you let slip about the "tremendously widespread character of all sorts (sic!!!) of artels throughout Russia"? Do you really fail to see what a comical, sadly comical impression your article creates by the side of the bare figures of the "syndicates in France"? These poor Frenchmen, whom, evidently, the canker of capitalism has deprived of the "tremendously widespread character of all sorts of artels," would probably burst into Homeric laughter at the proposal to establish a "separate special society" . . . for promoting the establishment of all sorts of societies! It goes without saying, however, that this laughter would only be a demonstration of the notorious frivolity of the French, who are incapable of understanding Russian thoroughness. These frivolous Frenchmen form "all sorts of artels," not only without first setting up "societies for the promotion of artels" but even -- horribile dictu! -- without first drawing up "model," "normal" rules and "simplified types" of societies of various kinds!
Fifth problem . . . (the urgent need has arisen) "to publish, under the auspices of this society (or separately), a special organ . . . devoted exclusively to the study of the co-operative movement in Russia and abroad.". . . Yes, yes, Mr. Levitsky!
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When a disordered stomach prevents a person from having a proper meal, he has no alternative but to read about how other people eat. But in all probability, the doctors would not allow a person who is so sick to read about the dinners other people eat, for such reading might stimulate an inordinate appetite not commensurate with the diet prescribed. . . . And the doctors would be quite consistent in doing so.
We have expounded Mr. Levitsky's short article in sufficient detail. The reader will probably ask whether it was worth dealing at such length with a casual newspaper article, whether it was worth devoting such a lengthy comment to it. Indeed, what importance is there in the fact that somebody (who, generally speaking, is prompted by the best intentions) happened to talk nonsense about some sort of compulsory mutual life insurance for the entire peasant population? We have heard very similar opinions expressed on analogous subjects. These opinions are, to say the least, groundless. Maybe it is an accident that our "progressive journalists" every now and again positively vomit up such phenomenally wild "projects" on the lines of "feudal socialism" that one can only shrug one's shoulders in amazement? Maybe it is an accident that organs like Russkoye Bogatstvo and Russkiye Vedomosti, which are by no means ultra-Narodnik, which always protest against the extremes of Narodism and against the conclusions drawn from Narodism à la Mr. V. V., and which are even not averse to covering up the rags and tatters of their Narodism with the bright new label of some "ethico-sociological school," that even such organs periodically, with punctilious regularity, present the Russian public now with some "educational utopia" proposed by Mr. S. Yuzhakov[104] -- a scheme for compulsory secondary education in agricultural gymnasia in which indigent peasants are to pay the tuition fees by work -- and now with this project of Mr. N. Levitsky's for compulsory mutual life insurance for the entire peasant population?*
It would be too naïve to put this down to accident. There is a Manilov in every Narodnik. Disdain for conditions as they really are and for economic evolution as it really is,
* Comparing these two fantasy-weavers of Narodnik journalism one cannot help giving preference to Mr. N. Levitsky, whose project is a trifle cleverer than that of Mr. S. Yuzhakov.
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unwillingness to analyse the real interests of the different classes of Russian society in their inter-relationships, the habit of laying down the law from above about the "needs" and "destiny" of the fatherland, of boasting about the miserable survivals of medieval associations that exist in the Russian village communities and artels, together with a disdainful attitude towards the incomparably more highly developed associations characteristic of more highly developed capitalism -- all these features are to be found in a greater or lesser degree in every Narodnik. That is why it is so edifying to watch some not over-clever, but very naïve, writer, with a fearlessness worthy of a better cause, carrying these features to their full logical development and embodying them in the dazzling picture of some "project." These projects always turn out to be dazzling, so dazzling that merely to show them to the reader is to prove how harmful contemporary petty-bourgeois Narodism is to our social thought and social development. Such projects always contain much that is comical; in most cases a superficial reading of them creates no other impression than a desire to laugh. But try to get at their real meaning and you will say: "It would all be funny were it not so sad!"[105]