Trading activity of urban and labour consumer cooperation of Siberia in 1926-1929

In the article the main progress trends of the trading activity of Siberian urban and labour consumer's cooperation in late 1920s is revealed. In 1926-1927 its trading network kept on extending, the commodity circulation increased, the number of cooperatives' shareholders grew. The campaigns of reducing prices, cutting down expenses etc., carried out by the initiative of the party and state bodies, decreased profits of cooperatives. Within transfer to forced industrialization (1928-1929) the conditions of consumer cooperation's functioning changed: the state's crediting harshly reduced, cooperatives had to work relying mainly on their own resources coming from trade profit as well as shares, investments and prepayments of cooperative societies' members. Moreover, the cooperatives were charged with a serious task to replace private merchants, whom the Soviet state attacked determinedly. The urban and labour cooperation could not perform this task completely because of lack of money for creating new trading points, bureaucratism, and lack of mobility and flexibility of the cooperative machinery. As a result, the trading deserts appeared, which were areas where private trader cut down its business while cooperation didn't create a trade network. Hardship with grain procurements that appeared in 1927-1928, repeated in 1928-1929, which led to irregularity in population supplying with food. In the circumstances the consumer cooperation had to convert to rationing of delivery of foodstuffs - first bread, then cereals, sugar, butter, meat etc. In 1928/1929 economic year rationing and card supply included all main foodstuffs. A similar process took place with manufactured goods. The first five-year plan gave preference to the development of heavy industry while production of commodities was financed residually. Besides, large amounts of goods were sent to the countryside in order to stimulate the peasants to hand in bread. All this determined critical deficiency of manufactured goods, which came to be given out in accordance with orders and coupons. Thus trade was replaced with distribution of class character. Labour possessed the top priority of being supplied while alien elements were excluded from the victual lists. The consumer cooperation was converted into the distributive machinery in the state hands as it used to be in the military communism time.

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