According to some estimates, the number of independent home workers was reduced by one million during the war, and this despite the fact that, owing to the disorganisation of large-scale manufacture, many workers took to home industry. The reduction is to be explained by the migration and dispersal of home workers in search of regions where there was more to eat. In the provinces of Vologda, Novgorod, and similar regions, where the food conditions were particularly bad, the falling off ranged from 20 to 25 per cent. On the other hand, in the provinces of Kursk, Orel, Simbirsk, and Tambov, there was an increase of from 15 to 20 per cent.
The proletarian Power is faced by the question, How is this mass of petty producers to be incorporated into the general system of the socialist economy now in course of construction?
In the first place, it is absolutely clear that forcible expropriation is here quite inadmissible. The petty producers must not be bludgeoned into the socialist realm. We must do everything in our power to make it easy for them to undergo the necessary change, and to understand that it is not merely necessary but advantageous. This can be achieved by surrounding the home worker with certain conditions. What are these conditions? How can they be secured?
First of all, WE MUST INCLUDE HOME INDUSTRY IN THE GENERAL SCHEME FOR THE STATE PROVISION OF FUEL AND RAW MATERIALS. For if the home worker receives from the State organisation of the proletariat the fuel and the raw materials which are requisite for his productive occupation, then he will become dependent upon that proletarian organisation. In former days, under capitalism, the dealer or the factory owner often supplied the home worker with raw materials, and thereby the latter became dependent upon the former. Of course the dealer or the factory owner “looked after” the home worker in this way in order to exploit him. The home