The influence of the Stolypin agrarian reform on the development of agricultural cooperation in Russia (1906–1914)

Abstract

The article examines the impact of the agrarian reform of P. A. Stolypin on the development of agricultural cooperation in Russia in the conditions of market relations. Without pretending in one article to give answers to all the main questions of assessing the impact of the reform on agricultural cooperation, let us dwell on some factors that either were not taken into account by the authors or remain misunderstood, which diminishes the significance of the reform. Thus, the influence of the Stolypin agrarian reform on the development of various types of agricultural cooperation, namely, agricultural societies and artels, credit and savings and loan associations, consumer and industrial cooperation, remains insufficiently studied. To achieve this goal, an analysis of historiography was carried out, the activities of land-organized, cooperative farms were studied, indicators characterizing the level of their material well-being and agriculture were analyzed. The article is based on general scientific principles of cognition, such as historicism and objectivity. These principles helped to assess the essence of the problem under study, taking into account the different points of view, both scientists and contemporaries of the events under study. The dynamics of the processes that characterized the cooperative agricultural movement in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was studied using the statistical method.

Keywords

• stolypin agrarian reform
• cooperation
• cooperative movement
• agricultural societies and artels
• credit and savings partnerships
• consumer cooperation
• industrial cooperation