Український селянин (Aug 2020)
ПОЛЬСЬКА КООПЕРАЦІЯ В ПЕРШІІЙ ТРЕТИНІ ХХ СТ.: СТАНОВЛЕННЯ, ОСОБЛИВОСТІ РОЗВИТКУ
Abstract
Introduction. Cooperation and the cooperative movement play a particularly important role in transition periods, in the periods of so-called transit economies and the formation of civil society. Today, the international experience of economic self-organization of the society is extremely relevant for Ukraine. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of historical knowledge, such as science, historicism, objectivity, systematic analysis, etc., as well as use of general scientific, special historical and special source methods. The scientific novelty is that a comprehensive study of the formation and development of national cooperation in Poland has been conducted. AllEuropean tendencies of development of cooperative movement were specified. It turned out that the peculiarity of Polish cooperation was that the Poles did not have their own state and were under the influence of the legislation and the level of the economy of various European states. The Polish intelligentsia, large national capital, and general democratic tendencies formed under the influence of wars and revolutions, played an important role in the development of the national cooperative movement. Conclusions. Thus, in the early twentieth century in Europe, the spread of cooperation was seen as means of economic and national-cultural revival. The latter factor led to increased interest in the cooperative form of self-organization of the population by the intelligentsia of the imperial states. On the other hand, the authorities of the region, responding to the success of the development of the cooperative movement in neighboring countries, hoped for its positive contribution to the rise of the predominantly agrarian economy of their countries and the stabilization of social relations. In general, agrarian Europe was becoming industrial and cooperation, as a form of mitigating social conflicts, either became the subject of research, or fell out as one that was competing with the ideology of state parties. All segments of the population actively participated in the cooperative movement; especially the peasantry, which in many cases initiated the creation of societies. Despite various shortcomings (ignorance of members, lack of work experience, abuse by managers, etc.), they played an important role in improving the economic situation of the population: significantly reduced prices for consumer goods, provided the necessary funds and knowledge to improve the economy, helped organize production and sales of products, contributed to raising the level of agricultural culture. In general, cooperation was an important element not only of economic prosperity. Contributing to raising the level of literacy, caring for the well-being of the population, they gradually became an important element of public life. This is especially evident in the examples of women’s cooperatives. The formation of a women’s economic organization was a significant step in the process of women’s self-affirmation, and required great efforts to ensure its functioning. It was through cooperation that women were given a chance to have economic and later political independence.
