It is, however, extremely difficult to induce all the poor peasants to enter communes. Of late, considerable numbers of the middle peasants have joined communes, and they have been still more inclined to enter artels. In so far as the poor peasants will not abandon petty agriculture, we must induce them to form trade unions of poor peasants. These unions must carry on the struggle against the rich peasants, must continue the struggle which was not fought to a decisive issue by the committees of poor peasants. The poor peasants must unite for purposes of mutual aid; they must enter into economic relationships with the State, in so far as they can undertake definite work for the State, receiving in return certain products on preferential terms, and various kinds of economic aid. Among the poor peasants of Russia there already exist large numbers of unions; these are formed for various purposes, but they are for the most part purely local, and have a temporary and casual character. They must be fused to form larger unities. There is a great future for such unions among the poorer strata of the population in the provinces whose production of food-stuffs is very small — the districts, for instance, from which we get pitch and tar, the forest regions where timber is felled and stored, and so on.
Additional work for the Communist Party, as far as the poor peasants are concerned, is to bring them in closer contact with the urban proletariat, to rid them of their petty-bourgeois habits and of their futile hopes that they will be able to continue vigorous, independent, individualist farming. Wherever there is any considerable number of poor peasants, we must see to it that communist groups, or groups of sympathisers with communism, are formed. Every poor peasant should become a member of a commune. Every member of a commune should become a communist.