At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, in Tsarist Russia, as well as in other industrialised countries, cooperatives were, alongside collectivism, claimed to be an alternative to private enterprises. This lecture examines how these cooperatives, once a tool against capitalism, were progressively integrated as a major instrument of the Soviet regime. It explores how and why cooperatives were used by the Bolsheviks, as well as by different social groups in cities and campaigns, in Russia in general and in the Perm region in particular. Focusing on the narratives, uses and actors of cooperatives, this lecture contributes to the writing of a socio-economic history of Russia, and to broader understanding of the early Soviet years.
Anna Safronova is a PhD researcher at Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She specializes in economic and social history of the Late Tsarist and Early Soviet period. Her dissertation explores the cooperative movement in Russia, focusing on the Perm region. Her work has appeared in several journal and books (S'unir, travailler, résister : les associations ouvrières au XIXe siecle, 2021; L’utopie au jour le jour Une histoire des expériences coopératives (XIXe-Xxe siècle), 2020 ; Hypothèses n°23, 2022). In Spring 2022, she will be a visiting fellow at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
Watch the recording on YouTube here.
