Russian Pig-iron Output in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

Lenin argued on the Russian iron industry in the seventh chapter of his great work, Razvitie Kapitalizma v Rossii, as follows; the very serfdom that helped the Urals to rise to its prosperity when European capitalism was in its initial period was the very cause of the Urals' decline when capitalism was in its heyday. Emphasizing the stagnation of the iron industry he gave Russian pig-iron output in the eighteenth century; 6.5 million poods for 1718 and 9.5 million poods for 1767. We can find, however, quite different figures of output in S.G. Strumilin's Istoriia Chernoi Metallurgii v SSSR (Moscow, 1954) which gave the most reliable statistics of pig-iron production; 566,000 poods for 1718 and about 5 million poods for 1767. Lenin cited the output for 1718 from A.V. Semenov's Izuchenie Istoricheskikh Svedenii o Rossiiskoi Vneshnei Torgovle i Promyshlennosti (St. Petersburg, 1859) and Semenov got it from I.I. Golikov's Deianiia Petra Velikogo (Moscow, 1789). And when we read the questioned page of Golikov's book carefully, it becomes undoubtedly clear that 1718 was a misprint for 1778, that is to say 6.5 million poods represented the output for 1778. Lenin also cited the output for 1767 from Semenov's book mentioned above. The conspicuous difference of the output for the same year between Lenin and Strumilin was caused by Semenov's miscalculation. Both Yatsunsky and Strumilin, the notable Soviet historians, argued enthusiastically how many Russian and Soviet historians had cited these wrong outputs since publication of Semenov's book. But without a single word referring to Lenin. It seems to us, however, that the correct outputs are more consistent with Lenin's argument on the Russian iron industry and to point out his fault does not mean to injure his masterwork. Impeachment should be made against the Soviet scholars who have fallen into dogmatism and tried to conceal Lenin's fault.