Peasant Cooperation in the Credit, Commercial and Industrial Spheres at the Beginning of the XX Century (Based on the Materials of Voronezh Province)

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the development of peasant cooperation in the credit, commercial and industrial spheres at the beginning of the XX century on the example of Voronezh province. The authors consider specific historical conditions for involving peasant population of the region in the activities of various commercial and industrial associations of cooperative type, analyze the main forms of cooperation of the peasantry, the organizational and legal basis of their functioning in the context of social and economic development of Voronezh province at the beginning of the XX century. Based on concrete examples from previously unpublished documents of the central and local archives, the degree of participation of rural producers in the cooperative movement of the region is illustrated. A comprehensive analysis of the sources has revealed that the dominant positions in the field of cooperative construction in Voronezh village were occupied by manufacturing artels and savings and loan partnerships. The agricultural specification of the region's economy combined with the commercial passivity of rural commodity producers, a weak level of peasants’ financial literacy, as well as numerous patriarchal remnants of the society determined the orientation of this process mainly on handicraft production.

Acknowledgements
The work was carried out with the active support of the teacher of history and social studies of MBOU Lyceum No. 7 of Voronezh Timoshinova Tatiana Sergeevna.