Consumer cooperative societies in Russia : Goals V. Gains, 1900-1918 - article ; n°3 ; vol.23, pg 351-369

Catherine Salzman

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Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique - Année 1982 - Volume 23 - Numéro 3 - Pages 351-369
Catherine Salzman, Les coopératives de consommation en Russie, les objectifs contre les profits, 1900-1918.
Les objectifs du mouvement coopératif de consommation sont de trois ordres. D'abord, sur le plan économique, les coopératives tentaient d'aider leurs adhérents à économiser de l'argent. En deuxième lieu, pour favoriser le développement moral de leurs membres et éveiller, quand c'était possible, leur conscience politique, elles organisaient toute une gamme d'activités culturelles et éducatives. Enfin, les dirigeants du mouvement s'efforçaient d'utiliser les assemblées générales pour apprendre à ceux de leurs membres appartenant à la classe ouvrière à participer à la gestion des coopératives. Toutefois, le pli des habitudes et des traditions russes - notamment le recours au crédit, l'analphabétisme, le respect des autorités, l'alcoolisme -, ainsi que les répressions gouvernementales et le retard économique entravaient La réalisation de ces objectifs.
Catherine Salzman, Consumer cooperative societies in Russia, goals v. gains, 1900-1918.
The goals of the consumer cooperative movement fall into three categories. First, on an economic level, consumer societies tried to help members save money. Second, to promote the moral development of their members and, where possible, their political consciousness, they organized a wide variety of cultural and educational activities. Finally, the movement's leaders sought to use the general meetings of their societies to teach working class members to participate in running the cooperatives. The realization of these goals was hindered by traditional Russian habits, including reliance on credit, illiteracy, deference to authority and alcoholism, as well as by government repression and economic backwardness.
19 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_ET_SOVIETIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1982
• Nombre de lectures: 52
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Catherine Salzman
Consumer cooperative societies in Russia : Goals V. Gains,
1900-1918
In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 23 N°3-4. Juillet-Décembre 1982. pp. 351-369.
Résumé
Catherine Salzman, Les coopératives de consommation en Russie, les objectifs contre les profits, 1900-1918.
Les objectifs du mouvement coopératif de consommation sont de trois ordres. D'abord, sur le plan économique, les coopératives
tentaient d'aider leurs adhérents à économiser de l'argent. En deuxième lieu, pour favoriser le développement moral de leurs
membres et éveiller, quand c'était possible, leur conscience politique, elles organisaient toute une gamme d'activités culturelles
et éducatives. Enfin, les dirigeants du mouvement s'efforçaient d'utiliser les assemblées générales pour apprendre à ceux de
leurs membres appartenant à la classe ouvrière à participer à la gestion des coopératives. Toutefois, le pli des habitudes et des
traditions russes - notamment le recours au crédit, l'analphabétisme, le respect des autorités, l'alcoolisme -, ainsi que les
répressions gouvernementales et le retard économique entravaient La réalisation de ces objectifs.
Abstract
Catherine Salzman, Consumer cooperative societies in Russia, goals v. gains, 1900-1918.
The goals of the consumer cooperative movement fall into three categories. First, on an economic level, consumer societies tried
to help members save money. Second, to promote the moral development of their members and, where possible, their political
consciousness, they organized a wide variety of cultural and educational activities. Finally, the movement's leaders sought to use
the general meetings of their societies to teach working class members to participate in running the cooperatives. The realization
of these goals was hindered by traditional Russian habits, including reliance on credit, illiteracy, deference to authority and
alcoholism, as well as by government repression and economic backwardness.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Salzman Catherine. Consumer cooperative societies in Russia : Goals V. Gains, 1900-1918. In: Cahiers du monde russe et
soviétique. Vol. 23 N°3-4. Juillet-Décembre 1982. pp. 351-369.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1982.1955
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1982_num_23_3_1955CATHERINE SALZMAN
CONSUMER COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES
IN RUSSIA,
GOALS V. GAINS, 1900-1918
L'intérêt de cette étude est de mieux faire connaître les
coopératives de consommation à partir de leur propre pratique,
entrevue notamment grâce à une analyse systématique de Sojuz
potrebitele j , et des autres journaux publiés par le mouvement.
Cela ne saurait faire oublier qu'avec la révolution de Fé
vrier, l'idée de réaliser un véritable projet de société a boule
versé le comportement des dirigeants du mouvement coopératif dans
son ensemble et que celui-ci s'est politisé au point de proposer
une alternative globale au socialisme, à l 'anarchisme, voire au
projet syndical, une attitude qu'a incarnée la présence de droit,
dans les bureaux des soviets, de dirigeants du mouvement.
M. F. 352 CATHERINE SALZMAN
The consumer cooperative movement in prerevolutionary
Russia is a topic neglected by historians for all too long.(l)
Consumer cooperative societies (obshchestva potrebitelej) were
progressive social organizations under a conservative gov
ernment. Their history makes it possible to assess the fragile
potential that existed for gradual, progressive social and
political change. In this essay I will outline the goals
that consumer coopéra tors hoped to accomplish, as well as
the various constraints that made their work especially
difficult.
Beginning in the 1860's, consumer societies were estab
lished across the Russian Empire. In 1897 there were only
307, but the number was beginning to grow more quickly.
In I905, 948 were counted, and by January 191Л there were
approximately 10,080.(2) During the First World War the con
sumer cooperative movement grew dramatically as the private
system of food distribution disintegrated. By the end of 1917
the total number of consumer cooperatives in Russia had
reached an estimated 35,000 and the total membership 11,550,000.
This was approximately 8.2 % of the population of the Russian
Empire.
Table 1
The growth of the consumer cooperative movement,
1914 to 1919
Year Number of Number of members
societies (in millions)
1913 10,080 1.40
1914 11,400 1.65
1915 14,500 2.61
1916 23,500 6.82
1917 35,000 11.55
1918 47,000 17.00
Source: Soiuz pot rebitelei , May-June, 1922: 18. The figures in
this table are for Dec. 31 of each year.
Consumer cooperatives can be broken down into five basic
types. The largest number were "village" societies, amounting
to 80 % of the total in 1917. But they were also the smallest
and poorest consumer societies. "Factory" societies were larger "railroad" societies were by far the largest type of con
sumer cooperative. Factory and railroad were closely
associated with a single firm, and their management was
normally heavily influenced by the firm's own. Independent
"worker" consumer societies, on the other hand, were run
by the workers themselves, together with their friends from
the intelligentsia. Worker societies were the radical left wing
of the consumer cooperative movement. "City" societies were
an odd assortment of consumer cooperatives associated with CONSUMER COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 353
various urban groups and social organizations, as zemstva, or
associations of doctors, lawyers or military officers. Many were
restricted to persons who were members of the organization
with which they were affiliated, but most were open for
anyone to join, and in 1917 the vast majority of their members
were from the urban working class.
The most complete statistics on the consumer cooperative
movement in Russia were collected by the Moskovskii Soiuz
Potrebitel'nykh Obshchestv (Moscow Union of Consumer Soci
eties), the MSPO, established in 1897. The MSPO was an
ail-Russian union with member societies in every corner of
the Russian Empire. In 1917 it underwent a reorganization,
becoming an association of unions of consumer societies and
changing its name to the Central Union of Consumer Societies,
the Centrosoiuz. Its leaders in the prerevolutionary period
were SRs, Mensheviks and liberals. In January 1917, the MSPO
had 2,902 member societies, including 526 city, 222 factory,
29 railroad, Л9 worker and 2,076 village societies. (3)
Consumer societies were fast growing organizations, even
before the goods crisis swelled the movement to unheard of
dimensions. MSPO member societies grew substantially between
19Ю and 1912.
Table 2
Average size of MSPO consumer societies,
1910 to 1912
1912 1911 1910
285 273 249 City
626 662 638 Factory
Railroad 3,836 3,687 3,062
Worker 431 415 352
Village 137 125 104
Average 370 412 416
Source: Ezhegodnik MSPO, 1914 g. , pt. I: 126. The average consumer
society fell in size because village societies were growing much
faster in number than any other kind. MSPO member societies tended
to be somewhat larger and wealthier than non-MSPO societies.
Of course, there is another side to the picture. Many
consumer societies failed and closed. According to a study
made in 1912, 94.8 % (5,258 of 5,545) of those founded between
1906 and 1911 were still functioning on January 1, 1912.
But only 76.3 % (726 of 951) of those founded between 1901
and 1905 were still functioning in 1912. U)
We can now turn our attention to the goals of the consumer
cooperative movement and how cooperators sought to accomplish
them. Of course, there was no unanimity on that subject. But
it was only in the late summer of 1917 that the gap between CATHERINE SALZMAN 354
moderates and radicals in the movement became unbridgea
ble. (5) It was possible for liberals and socialists to work
together in the consumer cooperative movement relatively
harmoniously, because the vast majority of socialist cooperators
did not think in terms of accomplishing their goals through
revolution. The sort of struggle envisioned by socialist coop
erators is seen in the following quotation from the MSPO's
worker oriented journal: "The cooperative movement is a
fortress - from which we will bombard bourgeois society with
two pound breads and cheaper potatoes. "(6)
In his memoirs, M. D. Shishkin, a Menshevik active in
the movement's cultural work, summarized the aspirations of
both liberal and socialist consumer cooperators:
"Some believed that through the cooperative movement
the people would achieve democracy. Others nourished
even greater faith that through the move
ment the people would achieve socialism. All agreed
that through the cooperative movement the