The Organization Structure of Cooperative "Business" in the USSR (1950s)

The article analyses the principles of building the producers' cooperative system that existed in the Soviet Union until its nationalization in 1960. The quantitative and qualitative parameters of the development of various kinds of industrial cooperation in national and regional aspects, as well as the activities of the authorities to restore the elected self-government bodies, are shown. A separate part of the article focuses on the policies of the ruling Communist Party, which, on the one hand, expressed the need to improve the workers' standard of living and support small cooperative enterprises, which could affect the solution of the stated task, and, on the other, gradually strengthened the administrative pressure on them. A set of measures aimed at improving the effectiveness of cooperative industry is presented. Among them are specialization, including the emergence of new offices, shops and workshops; technical re-equipment; refurbishment of the balance, etc. Attention is paid to the provisions of the charter which governed activities of the cooperative. The forms, methods and criteria of remuneration of the members of producer associations, education and physical education work, organization of housing, social insurance and health care are described in detail. A separate part of the article tells about the status of employees. After a long break, the publication of the monthly profile magazine Promyslovaya Kooperatsiya [Producers' Cooperative Society] was resumed. Its role in the promotion and dissemination of knowledge of best practices and advanced technologies is described. It is stated that the benefits cooperatives possessed compared with similar state enterprises of local subordination (belonging to different industries, ability to maneuver their own means, flexibility and adaptability to changing social conditions) allowed them to become real life support centers of cities and settlements in a short time. In the conclusion, reasons for the elimination of producers' cooperatives are given. Based on self-supporting and self-sustaining bases, cooperatives quickly mastered new segments of the consumer market and constantly raised their profitability. Their successes gave rise to the discontent of the party's "nomenclature" that saw cooperatives as a challenge to their own unbridled domination. As a result, the producers' cooperative system was found non-conforming with the lofty goal of building communism.

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