Publishing House SB RAS:

Publishing House SB RAS:

Address of the Publishing House SB RAS:
Morskoy pr. 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia



Advanced Search

Humanitarian sciences in Siberia

2014 year, number

FROM UNITY TO COMPETITION: HISTORY OF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNION OF SIBERIAN COOPERATIVE UNIONS (ZAKUPSBYT) AND TSENTROSOYUZ IN 1916 - 1919

N.Yu. Pivovarov
Institute of History of the SB RAS, Russia, 630090, Novosibirsk, Akad. Nikolaev str., 8
Keywords: Tsentrosoyuz, Zakupsbyt, Moscow union of consumer societies, Siberian cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, cooperative unions, shareholders, federal management, centralized management, Moscow, Siberia

Abstract

The article is aimed at studying the history of relations between the two largest Russian cooperative unions - the Moscow Union of Consumer Societies (since 1917 - Tsentrosoyz), that was an All-Russian cooperative association, and the Union of Siberian Cooperative Unions (Zakupsbyt) comprised of the Siberian consumer cooperatives. Based primarily on archival documents and materials from periodicals the author concludes that the Moscow Union of Consumer Societies, founded in 1898, became the first Russian cooperative union with centralized organizational structure consisting of consumer societies and cooperative unions. However criticism of the Moscow Union’s internal structure along with dissatisfaction of local authorities with its trade and distribution policies led to the fact that in 1916 the leaders of Siberian cooperative unions decided to organize their own Siberian center of consumer cooperatives - Zakupsbyt. It was an organization alternative to the Moscow Union as it had a decentralized (“federated”) organizational structure, leaving a large amount of authority for shareholders. However, due to exacerbation of the socioeconomic crisis, management of the Union of Siberian cooperative unions was forced to make transition from a federated to a centralized system of control. In 1916 - 1919 contacts between Zakupsbyt and Tsentrosoyuz encompassed a wide range of activities - from mutually beneficial agreements to direct competition for the markets and procurement of goods. The keynote of relations between the two cooperative unions was competition for consumers, which was hidden behind the official slogans stating the two supposedly alternative ways of the Russian cooperative movement development