Russian social democrats and zemstvo’s statistics digests on the trends of transition of Russian village communities to capitalism at the end of 19th century

The article examines the first attempts of scientific research by V.I. Lenin and his associates of facts of transition of Russian village communities to capitalism, peculiar approaches to this process of the representatives of liberal populism, the influence of social democratic views on the position of the representatives of the democratic public, critical study of the materials of zemstvo’s statistics digests.