A. A. Bikina The production of butter in Western  Siberia at the beginning of the  XXth century: development factors,  the role of the Union of Siberian  butter-making cooperatives

Abstract: This article examines the formation process of entrepreneurial structures in Western Siberian butter production – a region where this food industry sector started developing only in the 1890s, but then rapidly expanded at the beginning of the XXth century, so as to compare in volume to the butter production in the Vologda region, and even to surpass it. The author shows the significant role played by the butter-making cooperatives in the Siberian butter production, and the aims of the conventions of butter manufacturers and butter exporters in Siberian butter sales and exports. The research is based on the methods of comparative and typological analysis, primary statistical processing, and the visualization of tabular data. However, the author does not yet attempt a detail look into the activity of the conventions of the Union of Siberian butter-making cooperatives. Particular attention is given to the Union’s displacement of foreign firms – exporters of Siberian butter, the formation of larger butter-making cooperatives – producers of butter, and their negotiations of interests on a contractual basis. The institutionalization of this process began during the years of Stolypin’s reforms. The author demonstrates how the development of large cooperative production, the creation of the Union of Siberian butter-making cooperatives, the activity of the conventions of butter exporters and producers of the dairy industry, all contributed to the balancing of interests of thousands of cooperatives, butter-making factories, to the raised level of production quality, and to the increased coordination role of this cooperative organization, especially in the sphere of distribution of the Siberian butter-makers products to the main markets of consumption.

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