The communes can only advance along the road to socialism by a further process of union.
This can either be achieved by the fusion of two neighbouring communes; or else by the enlargement of particular communes through enrolling considerable numbers of new members from among the neighbouring peasants; or, finally, by the fusion of one or more communes with an adjacent soviet farm.
The chief task of the Communist Party as far as the rural districts is concerned is, at this juncture, to advance small-scale peasant agriculture to a higher stage, and as a first step to the stage of medium-scale communal agriculture. There is good reason to believe that the further development of the productivity of the land will mainly proceed along this route. It is within the power of the proletarian State to hasten the process, not only through the propaganda of word and deed (soviet farming), but also through the provision of all possible advantages to the communal farms now in course of creation — by furnishing them with financial support; by supplying them with seed, cattle, implements, and advice as to agricultural methods.
109. Cooperative Farming.
The commune is an intimate union among peasants, not only for productive labour, but also for distributive purposes and for cooperative social life. The artel is a permanent union solely for productive purposes, for joint labour. Cooperative farming is an even less intimate association, looser than that of the artel, more casual so to speak. The inhabitants of any particular village who are unable, owing to internal dissensions, to unite for the formation of a commune, and who for the same reason are unable to form an artel, can at least engage in cooperative ploughing in a fashion which does not bind the cooperators to anything further. The net upshot of this is that everything remains as of old, with one