V.I. Lenin and A.V. Chayanov: looking back, looking forward

This essay revisits aspects of the ‘Lenin–Chayanov debate’ which was so prominent in the formative period of The Journal of Peasant Studies: to distinguish some of its various strands, to identify some of its tensions and ambiguities, and to reflect on the legacies of Lenin and Chayanov. The resonances and ramifications of Lenin's and Chayanov's work encompass so many aspects of the world-historical, and highly charged, theme of the fate(s) of the peasantry in the making of modernity – the development of capitalism and (once) socialism – that the observations and suggestions presented here can only be selective. They are offered in the hope of clarifying and stimulating consideration of patterns of agrarian change today: how they differ from, and might be illuminated by, past experiences and the ideas they generated.