Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

The article reviews genesis and development of a cooperative elite in Russia. Formation of this elite was paralleled by the establishment and development of a cooperative movement in the Russian Empire. It started in the years of reforms of Alexander II. However, the underdeveloped cooperatives sector in Russia determined weakness of its elite. In the 1890s significant socioeconomic changes led to increase in the number of cooperative societies. Since that time cooperative elite had a real opportunity to implement its ideas in practice. The cooperative meeting in 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod and the First All-Russian cooperative Congress in Moscow in 1908 played an exceptional role in ideological and psychological consolidation of the elite. Thus up to 1917 the elite managed to take control over the key leverage of Russian cooperation. Representatives of the cooperative elite differed in their social origins, professions and political views. In terms of social background its majority consisted of the members of nobility, priesthood and petty bourgeoisie. Most of them held key positions, served as heads of departments and members of the boards of large cooperative unions. Some members combined service in cooperative societies with different government and public agricultural organizations. Others worked as journalists and publicists advocating ideas of cooperative movement. The cooperative elite members also included university lecturers, representatives of higher ranks of the Russian army and civil administration. Cooperation brought together people with different political views. Most of them expressed leftist political views. The number of socialists of various types increased in proportion to the growing opposition to the government and, in the broader sense, to the ruling regime. However the Russian cooperative elite lacked common ideology and understanding of further evolution. This was the main reason why it didn’t turn into a stable community.