articularly clear
expression of the peasants' disbelief in our ability to draw up a proper
economic plan. This belief is clearly at the bottom of such questions
as, 'Comrade Gusev, have you ever done any plowing?' or 'Comrade Orator,
do you know anything about peasant work?' Disbelief in the townsman who
understands nothing about peasants is natural to the peasant, and we
shall have to conquer it, to get through it, to get rid of it by showing
the peasant, with a clear plan in our hands that he can understand, that
we are not altogether fools in this matter and that we understand more
than he does." He then sets out the argument which he himself had found
successful in persuading the peasants to do things the reward for which
would not be obvious the moment they were done. He says, "I compared our
State economy to a colossal building with scores of stories and tens of
thousands of rooms. The whole building has been half smashed; in places
the roof has tumbled down, the beams have rotted, the ceilings are
tumbling, the drains and water pipes are burst; the stoves are falling
to pieces, the partitions are shattered, and, finally, the walls
and foundations are unsafe and the whole building is threatened with
collapse. I asked, how, must one set about the repair of this building?
With what kind of economic plan? To this question the inhabitants of
different stories, and even of different rooms on one and the same story
will reply variously. Those who live on the top floor will shout that
the rafters are rotten and the roof falling; that it is impossible to
live, there any longer, and that it is immediately necessary, first of
all, to put up new beams and to repair the roof. And from their point of
view they will be perfectly right. Certainly it is not possible to live
any longer on that floor. Certainly the repair of the roof is necessary.
The inhabitants of one of the lower stories in which the water pipes
have burst will cry out that it is impossible to live without water, and
therefore, first of all, the water pipes must be mended. And they, from
their point of view, will be perfectly right, since it certainly is
impossible to live without water. The inhabitants of the floor where the
stoves have fallen to pieces will insist on an immediate mending of the
stoves, since they and their children are dying of cold because there is
nothing on which they can heat up water or boil kasha for the children;
and they, too, will be qu