IV 
In the very first year after the revolution the Soviet 
State was confronted with the question as to the proper 
path for the development of agriculture. It was quite 
apparent that the system of agriculture prevailing, 
with its small-scale production, was not equal to the 
task of regenerating this most backward branch of 
national economy and of bringing about a decided 
improvement in the living conditions of the poorer 
peasants. At that time Lenin, the head of the Soviet 
Government and the theoretical and practical leader 
and guide of the November revolution, wrote of the 
“necessity of giving all possible support to the transi- 
tion from small-scale peasant economy to large-scale 
socialized production.” Lenin continually emphasized 
the necessity of “organizing the reconstruction of the 
entire economy, the passing from the single, individual, 
small-scale, trading economy to socialized large-scale 
economy.” 
But such a transition required as a necessary con- 
dition the development of an industry which would be 
able to supply agriculture with the machinery and im- 
plements needed for the carrying on of large-scale 
socialized economy. “This transition,” wrote Lenin, 
“can be speeded up only by means of such assistance 
to the peasant as will afford him the possibility of 
improving in a great degree his entire technique of 
land cultivation, by reorganizing it from the very 
bottom.” 
Without first restoring industry, ruined by the war, 
blockade and intervention, without considerably ad- 
vancing the industrialization of the country on the 
basis of the rehabilitated industry, it would have been 
impossible to think of a transition from small- to large- 
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