WHY RUSSIAN COMMUNISM HAS FAILED
produce, and in which the non-agricultural population
is only 15 per cent of the total, it ought to be possible,
without great difficulty, to provide enough food for the
towns. Yet the Government has failed badly in this
respect. The rations are inadequate and irregular, so
that it is impossible to preserve health and vigour
without the help of food purchased illicitly in the
markets at speculative prices. I have given reasons for
thinking that the breakdown of transport, though a
contributory cause, is not the main reason for the
shortage. The main reason is the hostility of the
peasants, which, in turn, is due to the collapse of
industry and to the policy of forced requisitions. In
regard to corn and flour, the Government requisitions
all that the peasant produces above a certain minimum
required for himself and his family. If, instead, it
exacted a fixed amount as rent, it would not destroy
his incentive to production, and would not provide
nearly such a strong motive for concealment. But this
plan would have enabled the peasants to grow rich,
and would have involved a confessed abandonment of
Communist theory. It has therefore been thought
better to employ forcible methods, which led to
disaster, as they were bound to do.
The collapse of industry was the chief cause of the
food difficulties, and has in turn been aggravated by
them. Owing to the fact that there is abundant food
in the country, industrial and urban workers are per-
petually attempting to abandon their employment for
agriculture. This is illegal, and is severely punished,
by imprisonment or convict labour. Nevertheless it
continues, and in so vast a country as Russia it is not
possible to prevent it. Thus the ranks of industry
become still further depleted.
Prmcttce & Tk&ry of Bolshevism HJ H*