The problem of periodization of the Russian cooperative movement of the late XIX – early XX centuries in the works of historians of the 2000s.

Bolotova Elena ORCID: 0000-0001-6432-2373 Doctor of History Professor; Department of National History and Local History Education; Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University 27 Lenin Ave., office 13-11, Volgograd region, Volgograd, 400005, Russia eubolotova@yandex.ru

For more than 100 years, researchers have been analyzing the phenomenon of cooperation in the late XIX–early XX centuries, identifying the causes, stages in the development of the movement, a set of factors affecting the nature and content of the cooperative movement, identifying the mechanisms of functioning of cooperatives that ensured their rapid quantitative growth and qualitative changes. Filling the scientific space of Russian historical science at the turn of the 1980s-1990s with extensive factual material allowed in subsequent years to create works of a generalizing nature (if not in general on the history of Russian cooperation, then on the history of its individual types – credit, consumer, etc.) based on a modernization approach, as well as the application of characteristics of civil society societies in determining the essential features of the cooperative movement. However, despite a significant amount of research, the study of the cooperative experience of the early twentieth century still retains scientific significance and has a clear practical meaning. The efforts of researchers are aimed at exploring the possibilities of cooperation in ensuring sustainable development of society, in overcoming socio-economic crises, in building a socially solidary economy in historical retrospect and modern conditions ^[7;8;10]. The cooperative management model is attractive in forecasting the economy of the future.

The authors, who joined the study of the problems of the history of the cooperative movement in the 2000s, significantly expanded the documentary basis, which allows, through immersion in the regional specifics of the implementation of economic activities by cooperatives, their organizational structure, involvement in socio-cultural life, to reach the generalizing characteristics of the cooperative movement as a whole. In recent years, the works have provided opportunities, based on the data from numerous sources, to reveal both general patterns in the development of cooperation and regional specific features of the implementation of cooperative economic activities, the organizational structure of cooperation and its involvement in social and cultural life. It seems that it is possible to link various data on the history of the cooperative movement, to consider the achievements of historical science in studying the problems of the history of cooperation through the prism of its institutional formation and the definition of stages in its development. It is on this path that answers are found to the question of the causes of the phenomenal quantitative and qualitative growth of cooperation, which in a short period of time has gone from the birth of individual societies to a mass movement that plays a significant role in the economic, socio-political, and cultural life of the country.

In modern historiography, there is an almost consistent understanding of the stages in the development of the Russian cooperative movement, which is based on the established tradition in Russian historiography. The researchers start from the time of the appearance of the first cooperatives in the 1860s, trace primarily their quantitative growth, noting as important milestones in the development, the institutional formation of certain types of cooperation and the movement as a whole: the development and adoption of cooperative legislation, cooperative congresses, the formation of cooperative centers, the creation of cooperative unions. As a facet of the transition from individual societies to a mass movement, most works indicate the revolution of 1905-1907, which gave impetus to the development of the cooperative movement "from below".

Among modern studies, there are not so many works of a generalizing nature ^{[2; 7; 9; 10; 11; 15]}, but it is in them that the understanding of cooperative construction as a whole is undertaken, which allows the authors to formulate a vision of the stages in development common to the movement and give their characteristics.

Thus, in the early 2000s, L. E. Fine, highlighting the period from the inception of cooperation and the beginning of its activities until 1904, notes the filling of the village during this period with cheap credit, which only indicated possible ways to raise the peasant economy, but did not play a significant role yet ^{[15, p.122]}. Consumer cooperation was also at the very initial stage of formation, which, despite the underdevelopment of commodity-money relations, great dependence on administrative influence and insufficient development of national amateur activity, already demonstrated a "certain positive role", influencing the improvement of the standard of living of the population ^{[15, p.142]}. Highlighting the next stage in the development of cooperation – from the revolution of 1905 to the revolutionary events of 1917 – the author notes as a characteristic feature the transformation of cooperation into a mass organization, prepared by the deepening of commodity relations and the growing economic need for it ^{[15, p.166]}. According to the author, the influence on the growth of cooperatives during this period was exerted by the agrarian transformations of the government, as well as the political situation and the impact of revolutionary processes on the growth of consciousness and organization of workers, which could not but affect, in turn, the development of cooperative cohesion of workers ^{[15, pp.172-173]}. Noting the massive nature of cooperation at this stage, L. E. Fine writes about its all-religious composition and satisfaction of the most urgent needs of its members through participation in the work of cooperative organizations ^{[15, p.221]}.

The stages in the development of cooperation and their qualitative characteristics are presented in the most complete form in the generalizing work of A. P. Korelin. The author's position is reflected in the very structure of the work: 1860-1895 – the emergence of the cooperative movement in Russia (analysis of the search for ideas, transition from theory to practice of the first societies, explanation of the causes of failures and examples of early successes); 1895-1904 – the formation of prerequisites for a new rise (formation of the legal framework, the first cooperative congresses and unions, revival of the movement); 1905-1914 – the deployment of a mass cooperative movement (politicization of cooperatives during the first Russian Revolution, the All–Russian general cooperative congresses of 1908 and 1913, the interaction of cooperation with zemstvos and authorities, cooperative construction - from grassroots cells to union associations of regional and all-Russian scale, the problem of developing general cooperative legislation); 1914-1917 – cooperation during the First the World War and the Revolution (restructuring of the organizational structure and economic activities, cultural and educational activities of the cooperative, cooperation between February and October) ^[9]. This periodization reflects the evolution of socio-economic conditions for the development of cooperation, quantitative indicators of the growth of cooperative organizations, and qualitative characteristics indicating the institutional formation of the movement.

A similar approach is used by the authors when analyzing the history of certain types of cooperative organizations, dividing them by the nature of their activities (consumer, credit, agricultural, etc.) or the social composition of movement participants (for example, workers, peasants), or when considering the history of cooperation as a whole using the example of individual regions.

Thus, analyzing the development of the workers' cooperative movement of the late XIX – early XX century, K. E. Baldin suggests its periodization, choosing as the main criteria the following: the intensity of cooperative construction, expressed in the number of created consumer societies; the mass nature of the movement, i.e. the number of members of cooperatives and the average size of these organizations; the degree of influence of the labor movement on the development of cooperation the role of the latter in the proletarian movement; the ratio of the number of consumer societies of various types; participation in the cooperative movement of the main professional detachments of the proletariat; the degree of consolidation of the movement, manifested in the organization of unions of consumer societies ^{[1, p.21]}. Based on such criteria, the author suggests the stages of the cooperative movement: 1) 1860s–1905 (mainly dependent cooperatives, 22 independent societies in total; the vast majority of societies among metalworkers and railway workers; since the late 1890s. gradual involvement in the movement of textile workers, miners, food workers); 2) 1905-1907. (the growth of the mass character of the labor movement laid the prerequisites for the growth of cooperation; the movement for the creation of independent cooperatives; the evolution of societies themselves, their mass character); 3) 1907-1914. (the rise in the cooperative movement as a whole, the growth of independent cooperatives, the coverage of almost all professional groups of the proletariat, the creation of the first unions); 4) 1914–February 1917 (the cooperative labor movement became an important part of the labor movement as a whole, the entry of workers' cooperatives into regional unions) ^{[1, pp.22-23]}.

An interesting angle to characterize the inter-revolutionary period in the development of cooperation on the example of credit cooperation was chosen by A. V. Sokolovsky ^[14]. The author examines the process of development of cooperative credit, focusing on the relationship between cooperative and state structures in cooperative construction (i.e., as a criterion for the periodization of the cooperative movement, the author highlights the specifics of the relationship between government and cooperation, in this work – credit – author). The author develops the thesis that it was the state that contributed to the rapid growth of credit cooperatives ^{[14, p.37]}. At the beginning of the 20th century, the author notes a powerful upsurge in the movement associated with the beginning of the struggle of cooperative figures against state guardianship. The author analyzes the American (the formation of cooperation by the state from above due to society's unpreparedness for cooperative construction) and European (mass social movement) models of credit cooperation construction and correlates them with domestic practice. At the same time, the author comes to the conclusion that it was the competition between these two incompatible models, each of which had both advantages and disadvantages, and formed the main content of the period during which the positions of the state constantly weakened as the crisis of autocracy deepened ^{[14, pp.377, 379]}.

Traditionally, researchers point to 1905 as a turning point in the development of cooperation, speaking generally about cooperation before and after the revolution ^{[9, p.25]}. A. P. Korelin notes objective and subjective factors of the rapid growth of cooperation in the post-revolutionary period, which had no analogues in the international cooperative movement of that time. The emphasis is on the general improvement of the economic situation - the country's economy emerging from a protracted economic crisis and depression due to the Russian-Japanese war and revolutionary upheavals, a number of fruitful years and rising prices for agricultural products, expanding the capacity of the consumer market, expanding and deepening commodity-money relations ^{[9, pp.171-172]}. All this helped to increase the interest of the population in various types of cooperative organizations.

The researcher also notes the formation of more favorable legal conditions for the development of cooperation: a number of legislative acts significantly modernized the civil and, above all, the property and legal status of the peasantry, the main participant in the cooperative movement, which revitalized the economic and entrepreneurial life of the village; improving the regulatory framework governing the activities of cooperatives, the introduction of new normal charters; reviving attention to cooperation from the outside Zemstvos who tried to "make cooperation an instrument and a means of carrying out their economic and cultural programs"^{[9, pp.172-173]}. And, of course, a special role was played by the rise of social and civic activity, which "brought" representatives from the "educated" classes into the cooperative movement, who joined the boards and councils of cooperatives at various levels and often headed them. At the same time, the author notes both party goals and personal "humanitarian" attitudes, as well as material considerations, in particular, the opportunity to get a paid position ^{[9, p.173]}.

N. L. Gabriel, a researcher of the history of cooperation in the Perm Region, also points out the mass character of the movement and the emergence of new directions in the activities of cooperatives under the influence of the revolution. Using the example of the region, the author notes that after the revolution, not only all forms of cooperatives are rapidly developing and the cooperative movement is becoming widespread, but there is also an active process of formation and functioning of the system of economic mechanism in cooperation, cooperatives begin to actively manifest themselves in cultural, educational and socio-political life. Competition between cooperatives and private economic enterprises is sharply intensifying in the market ^{[6, p.58]}.

Studying the history of urban consumer cooperation in Siberia, G. M. Zaporozhchenko also writes about the influence of the first Russian revolution, which was expressed in a noticeable intensification in the development of urban and workers' cooperation. At the same time, the author notes the unevenness in the development of cooperation and the frequent cessation of activity in the first post–revolutionary years, and since 1911 - steady development until the transformations of the Soviet government. The author cites the points of view of historians of the older generation – V. G. Tyukavkin, I. G. Lashkov, who distinguished the post-revolutionary period and up to the First World War in a separate period, as well as B. V. Ivanov, who extended this period until the February Revolution ^{[7, pp. 96-97]}. At the same time, there are many works in which the authors, pointing to the milestone of 1905-1907. in the development of cooperation in general and in some of the studied regions, in particular, they do not consider what exactly the influence of the situation of the revolutionary years on the processes of cooperation of the population was manifested in.

Yu. B. Budkina proposed her own criterion for the periodization of the development of credit cooperation on the example of the Ryazan province in her dissertation research. The author speaks about the historical and normative criterion, which includes an analysis of the socio-economic conditions for the development of credit cooperation and cooperative legislation: 1) 1870-1906; 2) 1906-1914; 3) 1914–February 1917; 4) February–October 1917 ^{[4, p.11]}. The author considers the Stolypin agrarian reform to be the most important event that predetermined the rapid quantitative growth of cooperative credit in the province and shows that during its implementation the credit Cooperation is becoming an important factor in the development of both the agricultural sector and the socio-cultural life of the Ryazan province as a whole. On this basis, the positions of credit cooperation in the region were strengthened during the First World War, which the author highlights in a separate period ^{[4, p.15]}.

Consideration in some publications of the peculiarities of the cooperative movement in the conditions of the First World War (its economic activity, involvement in the supply of the population and the army, union construction, inclusion in the political struggle, etc.) is generally a common topic in modern research, as V. M. Markov writes, for example, on the example of Siberian cooperation ^[13]. This allows us to conclude that the authors have identified the wartime period as a separate period in the development of the cooperative movement.

As for the research on the history of cooperation of individual regions in general, the authors of such works are characterized by the desire to consider the stages of the cooperative movement in the specific historical conditions of the development of the analyzed region, emphasizing their specificity ^[3]. Thus, N. I. Burnasheva, examining the processes of development of cooperation in Yakutia, notes the rather late emergence of cooperatives in the region and shows that despite the purposeful efforts of the provincial government, in the 1870s, the generally low level of economic development of the region, poverty of the population, and the lack of competent credit business organizers were constraining factors in the development of cooperation. The first savings and loan partnership was established in the Yakut region in 1877, the consumer society in 1897 ^{[5, p.133]} Explaining this, the author draws attention to the peculiarities of the local economy: the development of cooperation was hindered by the peculiarities of the Yakut cattle breeding economy, in which "there are few settlements, villages and villages where the population it was crowded into hundreds of houses or farms; most often in villages with a Russian population there are a dozen or two houses; in places with a foreign population – 1-3 yurts. Settlements are located dozens of versts from each other, farms engaged in crops, sometimes even further away" ^{[5, p.143]}. The author connects the next stage in the development of cooperation in Yakutia already with 1914, noting the formation by this time of more favorable conditions for the development of cooperatives, including the gradual awareness by the population of the need to combine efforts in solving economic problems, and in connection with Russia's entry into World War I, the acceleration of the process of creating cooperatives in the region was influenced by economic difficulties include restrictions on the import and export of goods from the region, rising prices ^{[5, p.146]}. Thus, the author focuses on changing economic factors, including wartime conditions, and the development of the cooperative consciousness of the population as a whole.

S. Y. Popov also connects the periodization of the development of cooperation with the peculiarities of the development of the largest region – Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk, Yenisei Gubernia, Trans-Baikal region) ^[12]. The author proceeds from the fact that the processes of socio-economic development developed more slowly in this region than, for example, in Western Siberia, and explains this by the peculiarities of its natural geographical conditions - huge forest areas, mountainous terrain, as well as greater remoteness from the center of the country and the centers of the cooperative movement, insufficient branching of roads and small the population of the territories. These factors determined, for example, the specifics of the development of consumer cooperation in the region and the author's special approach to its periodization. The author does not pay attention to the influence of the 1905 revolution. He continued the first period in the development of cooperation until the 1890s, pointing to the appearance of the first unstable cooperative formations in these years. The next period, from the late 1890s to 1913, was associated with the completion of the construction of the Trans–Siberian Railway, which created conditions for the economic development of the region, which became the basis for the sustainable development of consumer cooperation. The characteristic of the third period – from 1913 to October 1917. there was a sharp increase in consumer cooperation and its transformation into a mass phenomenon ^{[12, pp.34-36]}. Without singling out in a separate period, but noting the impact on the development of cooperation in the region of the First World War, the author cites data that in Eastern Transbaikalia, consumer cooperation served 88% of the population during the war years ^{[12, p.51]}.

The authors deduce the time and degree of involvement of the population in cooperation based on the heterogeneity of socio-economic development within individual Russian regions. E. L. Furman, for example, when analyzing the cooperative movement in the German colonies of the Volga region, notes that "the higher material and agricultural level of German farms and, as a result, increased requirements for the organization of cooperative associations – on the one hand, isolation that has not been eliminated over the years, on the other, explained the relatively weak development of cooperation in the the region where Germans lived in the Volga region until 1917", later the creation of cooperatives – since 1906, the special nature of the influence on the development of cooperation in the region with the German population of the First World War ^{[16, pp.308-309]}.

Thus, although modern authors generally do not set themselves the task of special consideration of the periodization of the development of the cooperative movement, however, when analyzing the process of cooperative construction on the example of certain types of cooperation and the activities of cooperative organizations, as well as within the framework of regional studies, they focus on the time of the origin of the movement, on the starting points of quantitative growth of cooperative organizations and strengthening their legal and organizational basics. Taking into account the general idea of the stages in the development of the Russian cooperative movement that has developed in historiography, the authors, when analyzing the regional experience of cooperative construction, correct and detail the periodization based on the influence of regional features of socio-economic transformations and the implementation of reforms, the nature of relations with authorities in peacetime and wartime. The first Russian Revolution is recognized as the frontier that divides cooperation into a movement "from above" and a movement "from below". However, due to the diversity of regional socio-economic conditions and the prevailing specifics of cooperative construction, common criteria, and therefore a single periodization and chronology of the stages of development of pre-revolutionary cooperation in Russian historical science has not yet developed. The understanding of the historical path of Russian cooperation continues, and the variety of forms of cooperative organizations in Russia at the end of the XIX–beginning of the XX century and their multimillion-dollar composition, diverse activities and influence on the socio-economic and socio-political life of the country, the cultural mission of cooperation create the basis for a wide problem-thematic field of future research and generalizing constructions.