[80]
The Russian Social Democratic Labor party, to which Lenine belonged, and of
which he was an influential leader, adopted in 1906 the following program
with regard to land ownership:
1. Confiscation of Church, Monastery, Appanage, Cabinet,[81] and
private estate lands, _except small holdings_, and turning them
over, together with the state lands, to the great organs of local
administration, which have been democratically elected. Land,
however, which is necessary as a basis for future colonization,
together with the forests and bodies of water, which are of
national importance, are to pass into the control of the
democratic state.
2. Wherever conditions are unfavorable for this transformation,
the party declares itself in favor of a division among the
peasants of such of the private estates as already have the petty
farming conditions, or which may be necessary to round out a
reasonable holding.
This program was at the time regarded as a compromise. It did not wholly
suit anybody. The peasant leaders feared the amount of state ownership and
management involved. On the other hand, the extreme left wing of the Social
Democrats--Lenine and his friends--wanted the party to proclaim itself in
favor of _the complete nationalization of all privately owned land, even
that of the small peasant owners_, but were willing, provided the principle
were this stated, to accept, as a temporary expedient, division of the land
in certain exceptional instances.
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